


When he broke 3: Falling Towers

by cisco_centric_4ever



Series: When he broke [3]
Category: Bleach, Naruto, Soul Eater
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Rape/Non-con Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-02 06:57:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14539146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cisco_centric_4ever/pseuds/cisco_centric_4ever
Summary: During the chunin exams, Naruto faces a difficult choice. On one hand, he could continue on with his plans and take over the village...On the other hand, he can go back start over. When things come down to the wire and the unexpected betray comes from someone that he thought he could trust, Naruto must try to either save himself or the ones he loves. What will he choose and how will this affect his plans?





	1. Betrayal

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is Part three. It's finally here!

_"We're being watched...."_

 

Naruto looked around the forest for any trace of the person. He could sense someone watching them closely, but he couldn't tell who it was. He didn't like this feeling. Not knowing something always drove him crazy. Sasuke placed a hesitant hand on Naruto's shoulder and was pierced by icy blue eyes that chilled his bones. "U-uh N-Naruto, what's wrong? Is someone here?" He asked looking up into the trees. Naruto turned back to looking around the forest area, he could still sense the person, but it was more hidden now. 

 

"...Yes, someone's here," he breathes out. He shook his head and turned to Sasuke and Sakura, "we need to keep moving, don't fall behind, okay? We should regroup with the others to have numbers on our side."

 

"Who made you boss, baka? Sasuke-kun's the one who-" Sakura started to rant, but both her teammates turned a harsh look to her. 

 

"Sakura, if you don't want to get left behind, you should listen to Naruto and stop acting like you know everything. Understand?" Sasuke said in a calm tone, the pinkette was taken aback by that but she obeyed her crush nonetheless, she sent a glare at the blond when Sasuke turned away from her. Sasuke decided to ignore Sakura's existence from then on, "okay, which way do we go from here?"

 

"Follow me," Naruto said as he turned away from them and jumped into the trees. Sasuke followed suit and Sakura followed them, if not a little further behind. Since she didn't do any other training other than what was needed to pass the academy and defend herself from a small-time thief, she was just barely able to keep up with either f her teammates as they jumped from tree branch to tree branch. Naruto and Sasuke had to slow down their pace just so Sakura could keep up with them, but they were not surprised by that, not at all. After a few hours of running and searching around, Naruto noticed something odd and stopped on a tree branch. He looked up at the sky and saw that it was already getting dark, which put him on alert when they entered the forest, it was only one-fifty in the afternoon, nowhere close to getting dark no matter what season it might have been. Something was wrong.

 

"Do you see something?" Sasuke asked curiously.

 

"Yes..." Naruto looked around the area, judging from what he saw, it looked like it was nearly six or seven in the evening, which could not be right. He thought back to when the three of them were jumping through the trees, it seemed like all was normal, but now something was...off. What could that be? Naruto raised his hand up in front of him and called out, "KAI!" A powerful burst of chakra erupted from his body and he looked around the forest to see that nothing had changed, everything looked like it was close to sunset still, he could still fee someone watching them as well. "This is no good," he turned around to see if he could see everything around him, he had this really bad feeling in his stomach that something bad was coming.

 

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Sasuke asked, he was starting to feel really uneasy, he has never known Naruto look so unsure of himself before. However, even if it seemed like he didn't care for the guy before, he certainly cared now. What had his husband so spooked that he turned around so much? "Naruto?"

 

"GET DOWN!" Naruto turned and reached for Sasuke as fast as he could to get him out of the way, but just as the words had escaped from his lips, his world fell apart. A strong gust of wind came out of nowhere and hit all three genins like a ton of bricks. Naruto looked around at where the wind came from and couldn't see much before his body collided with a thick tree trunk, the air was knocked out of his lungs for a long few seconds before he could regain his breath again. He snapped his eyes up when he heard a familiar sounding laugh.

 

"My, my, my, if it isn't my dear grandchild. Were you and your team looking for something in particular?" Came the sound of someone that Naruto would rather not see at the moment. The blond looked up from the dust that was kicked up by the wind and glared into the hazel eyes of Aizen, his supposed grandfather. He held up his hand with a dark smirk, "maybe, something like...them?" Naruto's eyes trailed down to Aizen's hands and they widened. Aizen was holding the thin wrist of Shikamaru, the boy was unconscious and clearly hurt and it boiled Naruto's blood to know that someone had managed to hurt one of his beloved wives.

 

"Let him go right now, you bastard," Naruto growled in a dark voice as he forced himself to stand on his own two feet.

 

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I'm afraid that I simply can't do that, Naruto. You see, I have some use for these seven that I thought that I would just take them now. Before you get what you want, I want to get what  want from them, sound fair?" Aizen asked in a calm voice, he held up Shikamaru in front of him with one hand and touched his belly.

 

"NO! Don't you dare touch him!" Naruto shouted and forced himself to move, but his body wouldn't obey his commands. He felt like he was heavier than led, weighed down by tons of sand and was sinking to the bottom of the ocean no matter of hard to fought to stay afloat. Was this the strang feeling he was feeling from before?

 

Aizen chuckled, "relax, I said you can have him back once I get what I want. Don't you trust you dare grandfather?"

 

Naruto gritted his teeth, "like I do! Let him go!" Naruto could feel some of Kurama's chakra running through his body and he used that to move, but it wasn't enough. His body still felt heavy and he didn't know why. He looked down at himself and was again shocked at what he saw. There were blood, lots and lots of blood around him, was all over his clothes and he didn't remember when he might have gotten into a fight since entering the forest. He only remembered running. But why was he running? He couldn't remember, why? He didn't know. He had always had such a good memory, but now it feels like he was losing his mind. WHAT WAS GOING ON? 

 

Aizen sighed, "must we go through with this everytime?" He asked, Naruto looked up and blinked, looking at Aizen's hand he saw him holding up someone by their wrist, but instead of Shikamaru, it was Gaara. How? How could Gaara be there when Shikamaru had just been there? And he was equally as hurt! 

 

"What's going on? What did you do to them!" Naruto shouted.

 

Aizen continued to smirk, "shouldn't you be more worried about what has happened to you?"

 

"Wha-" Naruto looked down at himself again and saw blood, but there was more this time. Was he bleeding? Was this his blood? Where did it all come from? Why so much? "I don't-I don't know? WHAT'S-"He looked up at Aizen and saw Chouji in his grasp now, he looked around at the area and saw that they weren't alone. Off to the side, Naruto could see some people fighting, he could tell that Sasuke was nearby and so were the others. But what were they fighting? Naruto tried to focus his eyes and mind since there felt like it was getting foggy for some reason. He looked up to the spot where he felt the fight happening and was assaulted with the sight of a giant white snake! "Orochimaru?" This didn't make sense, they had a deal! How could he do this to him? He growled at the snake sannin and heard a scream, his senses were assaulted with the sent of more blood being spilled, and he looked back over to Aizen. What he saw could only be described as his worst nightmares. Shikamaru, Neji, Gaara, Hinata, Ino, Chouji, TenTen, Lee, Kiba, Shino, Sakura were all laying before Aizen on the ground. He looked up at the man to see that he was now holding an unconscious Sasuke in his grip, his hand was halfway inside of the Uchiha's chest. Naruto's appearance became wilder, his teeth sharpened and his whiskers darkened. "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!!!" He screamed this time he pulled more chakra t spread out throughout his body and was able to move again.

 

Naruto took off like a flash of lightning and rushed towards Aizen. Aizen, in the meantime, smirked as if he had expected this much and threw Sasuke's body to the side with the others. He blocked Naruto's attack with his sword and pushed back on the blond with force, but Naruto would not back down. His hands turned into claws and he scratched down on Aizen, he managed to make a small scratch on his cheek before they pushed away from each other. "My, Naruto, you have really gone insane, have you? To hurt me when I was only doing you a favor?"

 

"And what favor would that be? You hurt my family, I should kill you!" Naruto screamed and charged for Aizen again.

 

"You really shouldn't say things so carelessly, Naruto," Aizen blocked another hit from Naruto and decided to make his move now. He pushed the blond back some with little effort and brought his blade down on the boy. "This should teach you not to be so shameless!" The blade but through Naruto's body lick butter, drawing blood that shot out like a fountain. The cut was deep, going vertically from shoulder to hip and hitting all the important organs along the way. Naruto crumpled to the floor, his mind not processing what just happened as he fell to his knees. He continued to glare at Aizen, he didn't want him to get away with this, but he could not allow himself to die here without getting help for his loved ones, he was stuck in the middle. Aizen grinned at Naruto with mirth, "did you really think that you could hide from me? Did you think that I was not going to find out about you?" He shook his head and squatted in front of the blond so that they were at eye level, "the one thing that you can not ever think to do here and now, is to tell me that you actually thought that you would win."

 

Naruto gritted his teeth when he realized that he could not move his body again, "what did you do to me?" 

 

"Simple, I took control of it. It was rather simple since you gazed upon my sword without knowing it. It has this funny little trick of going unnoticed when new people see it and I don't want them to. It's like a genjutsu, but mostly undetectable by any means." Aizen smirked, "you were one of the few that got to see it in action for this long. count yourself lucky."

 

Naruto forced himself to move again but to no avail. His body was stuck and he had no way of fighting back. "Why?"

 

"Hm?" Aizen was confused by the question.

 

"Why did you do this?" Naruto clarified.

 

"Ah, yes, well the reason being...I was looking for something important. But it's not here, what a shame," Aizen stood up and turned away from Naruto. As Aizen moved away from him, Naruto felt a little movement come back to him and he quickly used it to lunch at the man that he hated so much, but Aizen seemed to have seen this coming, even though his back was turned. He turned around quicker than Naruto moved and time seemed to freeze, there was a stabbing pain in Naruto's chest and he didn't realize it until he looked down at Aizen's outstretched arm. His eyes followed the arm down to the hand and then the sword in his hand. "I no longer have any reason to be here, so I'll e leaving now. From what I hear, you heal pretty fast...but can you heal from this, I wonder." He pulled his hand back to reveal the blood-soaked blade of his sword, he watched as Naruto fell to the ground, wide-eyed at what just happened. He stared at the Naruto's body for a long time before turning and walking away again.

 

Naruto laid there on the ground looking out at the forest before him. He could just see the pool of blood he was just standing in a few minutes ago from the corner of his eyes, he looked further away from it and could barely make out Gaara's red hair because it blended so well with the blood. Couldn't he save them? Why? What happened? Where did it all go wrong? Why couldn't he remember any of it?  _"Is this the end?"_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_**....Is** **this the end?** _


	2. What is love to you?

**Earlier**

 

_"But I don't want to stay here by myself!"_

 

_You won't be by yourself, you'll have Inari here to keep you company. Plus Dante is here to protect the house with his three pups as a backup, so you'll be safe."_

 

_Kurama pouted at his husband, he folded his arms and turned his head away childishly, "I'm not staying here and that's that!"_

 

_Naruto's smile fell when he heard the determination in Kurama's voice, he knew that there was no way he would get the fox-boy to change his mind once he's made it up. He sighed heavily, "fine, fine." Naruto scratched the back of his neck as he thought, "okay, how about this? I put you in the seal and you can feel everything that's going on? It's better than staying home, ne?'_

 

_Kurama thought about it for a second before turning away from Naruto, "but I want to be there next to you, not stuck in the seal again."_

 

_Naruto walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, turning him around to face him. "But you won't be stuck in the seal, you'll still be able to get out and walk around from time to time whenever you want to. But I don't want you to get hurt, I can't stand to lose anyone else I love, understand?"_

 

_Kurama looked into Naruto's eyes, seeing all the sorrow and pain that plagued them both since Naruto was born was killing him. How could he say no? "Alright, fine, have it you're way. But once we reach the second part, I want a little bit o action too, got it?"_

 

_Naruto chuckled, "only if I feel you can handle it, then I'll let you out. I know how troubling you can be when you're denied you're denied your kill." Kurama nodded, glad that Naruto knew him so well, Naruto took a few steps back from the redhead and did the hand signs that allowed Kurama to re-enter the seal. Once that was done, he turned around, he saw someone duck behind the corner of the wall and shook his head, "come out Sasuke, I know you saw." Slowly Sasuke came out from behind the wall and faced Naruto with his usual cold look, "is there something on your mind?"_

 

_"Why are you letting Kurama come with us? Even though he'll be in the seal, isn't he too far along to fight?" Sasuke asked._

 

_"Yes, and no. Kurama is a natural at fighting, but he also knows his limits, even though he hasn't met anyone that could push him to it since meeting me. Kurama will be fine as long as he's in his seal...why do you ask? Are you starting to worry about others more than yourself?" Naruto asked he stared at Sasuke for a long while before shaking his head at the silent Uchiha, "listen Sasuke. I don't know why you don't like me, I have been trying to get you to open up to me, I brought back gifts and everyone else is trying to get along well. But you don't seem to be interested in any of it, why?"_

 

_Sasuke stayed silent for a long time. How was he supposed to tell Naruto how much he actually cared, after all he's done? The lying, the fighting, the talking back and everything else in between. He was actually started to get used to his like with Naruto, but there was this feeling inside of him that told him to not get attached. This feeling has been with him since he got married and it only seemed to get stronger. He was abandoned by his family, their deaths came as a shock to him. One by one they slowly died off. And even though his clan was not really dead, it felt pretty damn close. Noone in his clan came to see him anymore, no one came to ask him how he felt about all this after it happened, maybe Itachi sent him a letter or two, but he could feel it in his bones that they were all gone. His clan had already disowned him thanks to his embarrassing acts and he had no control over it. If he could turn back the hands of time, what would he do? He felt as if he would make sure to never do those acts ever and thus, he would not be in this position. But if he did that...he would not be married to Naruto. The boy that he was slowly, but surely, starting to fall for. What was this feeling in his heart that made him feel like he was filled with life, but locked out in the cold every time he saw the blond? What was this feeling in his chest that made him feel like he was welcomed, but not at the same time? If he could go back in time...what would he do to make sure that he didn't feel this way ever again? Would he try to rewrite his history between the two of them? Make it so that Naruto and he were more like brothers than enemies? Would he make it so that they were lovers before getting married? How could he do that? Or would he just ignore Naruto completely and continue on with his goal to be the strongest in the village? What would he do?_

 

_Now that he was going through this, he could feel in his heart a state of confusion that he had never known before. Why? What was this feeling?_

 

_"Sasuke?" Naruto called out his name softly and Sasuke noticed that Naruto was much closer to him that he was a second ago. Th blond reached out a hand and made a move to cores his face, but Sasuke jumped back from the touch as if he had been shocked. Naruto frowned, "Sasuke-"_

 

_"It's nothing, let's get going." Sasuke walked past Naruto quickly, heading for the front door and waited outside for the others. Once he was out of view from the blond, he leaned against the wall of the compound and slide down. Tears streamed down his face as he covered it with his hands, it was red now. Almost as red as a tomato. "Why do I have to feel this way?"_

 

_Once Sasuke had walked away from Naruto, the blond sighed, he was about to get the others but he felt something behind him. Or someone. "Crow? What do you have for me at this hour?"_

 

_"Naruto Uzumaki, the Grimreper is calling for you. He asked for you're so...what will you do?"_

 

_Naruto chuckled, "my soul is worthless, he can have it as long as everyone I love is safe and sound, I care not what happens to me." He shook his head with a sad smile on his face, "speak, what did the reper say?"_

 

_"...You have one chance to use the Siko after this time is gone, your soul will be forfeited to Lord Death at the right time."_

 

_Naruto took in a deep breath as he looked up at the ceiling above, "then tell them that I'm on my way. The Siko was my intention to begin with...was it not?"_

 

_"..." Crow fell silent for a long time before he fathered his chakra around him. "The Captions will be awaiting your return. Until then, I'll be seeing ya."_

 

_"You have a sick sense of humor...Gin" Naruto smirked as the person disappeared in a gust of wind._

 

 

**Present**

 

"Naruto?" A soft voice squeaked out as they looked upon the dull eyes of the blond. They were in no better shape, but with a sense of desperation, they pulled themselves together and dragged their body over to the blond. He looked into the blond's eyes as they tried to see any hint of life still held within, "Naruto?...Please, don't-please don't do this. Please don't leave me too."

 

Naruto's vision came back into a somewhat less blurry view of the world as he looked upon the face of the person, "Sa...su...ke..." he croaked out. His eyes drifted over the boy's chest wound, it was bleeding a lot, it was a miracle that he was still alive from the looks of it. Looking past Sasuke, he could see his other wives, his friends, all of them were laying in a pile of blood on the forest floor. "What happened?"

 

"I don't know, we were attacked while we were looking for the others. There was a fight...I can't remember much after that...Other than for that guy's hand being in my chest, it's all a blur." Sasuke explained, his words were coming out in huffs, he was losing too much blood to stay continues for much longer.

 

Naruto forced his body to roll over, he looked up at the trees that blocked his view of the sky, "this is all my fault, how could I have been so careless?"

 

"...It's not...your...fault...you were...you were so focused on...me...you couldn't...fight," Sasuke struggled to say. He had no way of getting his energy back like this, at this rate, he would pass out after a few more minutes and then, he would most likely die. Naruto knew the odds quite clearly as his eyes found Sasuke's face, he was so pale now, he was ghostly. 

 

Naruto turned back to looking up at the trees, he wasn't in any better shape. Aizen's sword had nicked some arteries and sliced his right through the left side of his heart. If it wasn't for Kurama being sealed within him, he would not still be alive right now. He also felt bad for Karuma, for Inari, the babies...he'd let them all down.  **"Naruto...you better not give up on my now! Just a little bit longer and I think...I think I can get your heart fixed up a-"** HIs voice was teary and painful to listen to, Naruto knew that Kurama was having a hard time keeping him alive because of the way Aizen had cut in to him, he was sure that he could not make it through the next hour without difficulty. 

 

"Kurama...don't," Naruto's voice cracked, "there's no saving me right now...I've doomed us both. I'm sorry."

 

"Naruto, don't say that!" Sasuke shouted at the blond, Naruto turned and looked at Sasuke. 

 

He lifted his hand up, they felt so heavy right now. How much blood did he lose? He had no idea, but he knew that it was enough to make him weak. His hand reached Sasuke's face and wiped away the tears from his eyes, "are those...tears...for me?" Naruto asked, his breathing becoming heavy with each word, "don't...wast them...on...someone like...me," he let out a breath and looked into Sasuke's eyes. The tears were coming don't heavier now, "I'm not...worth it..."

 

"No, Naruto, please!" Sasuke cried out, he couldn't believe how much his heart was hurting because of this. At this moment, he has felt the greatest pain that h thought could ever exist. It hurt more than anything that he first thought possible. "Please, don't die," his vision was getting darker as the seconds ticked by, What was this feeling? Is this what it felt like to lose someone precious to you? If so, he would rather die now than to watch them die in front of him. The pain was too great.

 

Naruto took in every detail of Sasuke's faces as he watched him cry. 

 

_"...You have one chance to use the Siko after this time is gone, your soul will be forfeited to Lord Death at the right time."_

 

_"Then tell them that I'm on my way. The Siko was my intention to begin with...was it not?"_

 

Naruto took in a sharp breath of air and tried to move, Sasuke watched Naruto struggle. "Naruto? No, don't move, yo-"

 

"I can save them..." Naruto said as he coughed up blood, "I can save you. Hinata, Shikamaru, everyone. I can save them," he coughed up more blood as he forced himself to get into a sitting position. "I can do it!"

 

"Naruto, what are you..." Sasuke watched as Naruto channeled chakra throughout his body, so much chakra was being used that it became visible around him. Instead of the blue chakra that everyone was known to have or the red chakra that he shared with Kurama, there was a purple chakra that surrounded him. It was dark and dangerous. It was so strong that the air around him became thick. Naruto forced his way up to his feet and walked around to Sasuke's side, he struggled a bit to pick the boy up in his arm, but he managed and he walked over to where the others lay, Sasuke was shocked by the strength of Naruto's determination to save them. It almost seemed superhuman to him. Naruto set Sasuke down next to Gaara's body, he looked at him as he huffed and puffed, his breathing coming put just as ragged as he felt, "what are you going to do?"

 

"Saving you, saving everyone,' Naruto breath, "it's kind of what...(cough, cough) I do." More blood came from his mouth, but he ignored it's meaning, he wiped it on his left hand, which was free from blood, and started performing hand signs. 

 

As Naruto made the signs, there were some shouts coming from deep within the forest. "Hey! I can see a lot of blood! Call a medic just in case someone's hurt!"

 

Naruto quickens his pace, he couldn't afford to be caught now. They were dying, his loved ones were dying, he had to work fast. He made the last hand sign just as someone broke through the treeline. Naruto looked up to see who it was and sneered, it was Orochimaru, "kkkk, Naruto my boy, good to see you. Hm?" Orochimaru looked at the pile of bodies at Naruto's feet and frowned, "look at the mess he made, I told him that I wanted at least some of them alive," he shook his head and smirked as he walked over to the blond. "Would you mind handing over Sasu-What are you doing? No, wait!"

 

Before Orochimaru could get much closer to Naruto, a blinding light flooded the area, lighting up the sky. When the snake sannin could look again, Naruto was gone, along with the piles of bodies he was standing over. Moreover, Orochimaru noticed that Sasuke's body was also missing, Aizen had told him that he had let Sasuke live long enough for him to get there, but it looks like whatever jutsu that Naruto had done took his targeted vessel. Orochimaru sneered, "that brat."

 

"Over here, the light came from over in this direction!" Came a shout from close by, Orochimaru knew when to cut his losses, he wouldn't want to get found out now, he would find the blond wherever he chose to hid and get back his vessel. He took off before the first three chunin came crashing through the clearing to look for the source of light.

 

 

**To be continued?**


	3. Restart

 

The sound of a baby crying felt like a distant dream to his ears, but it kept getting louder. It was a welcomed change to all the other sounds that used to swim about in his mind. The sound of screaming, shouting, fire burning, things being thrown at him very quickly. People trying to hurt him every chance they get. But this sound that he was hearing, odd, brought him peace. It was real, it was alive, so innocent and pure. If only he could have that back, he may finally be happy in life and then die peacefully. 

 

Opening his eyes slowly, Naruto looked around at his surroundings. He looked up to see that he was in a room, it was dimly lit and the nose he heard before was that much louder. He looked to his left to see where the sound was coming from and found that he was in a familiar room. The area was big and it held many cages, no, not cages. He looked closer...where they cribs? He blinked his eyes twice and saw that they were indeed cribs, there were quite a few actually, from his count, twenty-one cribs in total from what he could see. He sat up slowly and looked around some more, where was he? He looked to where the sound was coming from and saw himself, holding something that was wrapped in blankets. A clone? When did he make a clone? He wondered as the fog around his mind was slow to release him. Naruto slowly got up to his feet to see what was going on, was this an illusion? Where was he? 'Boss?" Naruto turned to the clone, "are you alright boss?"

 

Naruto looked over the clone for a second, "I'll get back to you on that." He looked around the room again and saw that there were actually more cribs than he first thought, a sum of nearly thirty cribs in all, now that he was standing at his full height. "Where am I?" He asked not really believing his eyes, why so many cribs? Where they all full?

 

"You're in the nursery boss, remember?" The clone asked.

 

"Huh? The nursery?" He asked looking back at the clone, "but I thought this place burned down? It looks just the same..."

 

Suddenly something seemed to click for the clone, "boss, did you use it? The Siko?"

 

Naruto blinked. The Siko? He tried to remember the last thing he did, but his mind was too foggy to think, "I can't remember." He looked back over to his clone, "what just happened?"

 

The clone took on a more understanding look on his face, "boss, I think you should lay down for a while. If you did use the Siko, you won't be able to think straight or remember anything for the next three hours." He walked over to Naruto and put a hand on his shoulder to guide him out of the room, Naruto got a look at the thing in his arms, it was a baby, with golden blond hair and faint whisker marks, it's skin was that of caramel. The child looked so familiar, yet his brain still would not allow for him to remember who it was or where he had seen them before, if what his clone said was true, then maybe he should take a rest after all.

 

After the clone took Naruto to a room to rest, he looked around at the room. The walls a cream color, plain, a dresser, a closet, and a wardrobe to his right. A desk with a chair, a lamp, a window and nightstand to his left. In the center was a king sized bed with a cream colored canape to match the sheets and pillowcase. The bed looked to be very inviting, so he decided lay in it, "I guess I'll feel better when I wake up," he thought out loud as his head it the pillow.

* * *

**Sometime later**

 

Naruto jolted away. He shot up into a sitting position when he felt a splitting headache overtake him. In his mind pictures and voices melted together like a pot of soup. It was confusing, but once he took a few deep breaths in and out, he found that he was actually remembering stuff. Everything that happened to him in the past, his present, his future plans, goals. Everything came rushing back to him at once and he couldn't believe it for a second, "wow," he slowly got out of bed and was hit with a small bout of dizziness before the feeling went away. He walked out of the room he was in, his room, he never really realized how plain it was until he looked at it again. Entering the hallway, he saw that it was the same as when he first built and designed it. Completely perfect do to the very last detail. He walked towards the second door on his right, it opened just before he got there and a startled Shikamaru came out of the room. He looked around the hall for a second before noticing him and jumped into his arms, hugging him tight, "Shikamaru?" 

 

"Naruto!" Shikamaru hugged him tighter, "how are we alive? I watched you die! I watched everyone die!" He pulled away from Naruto's arms to look him in the face, not even caring that he was crying, "how?"

 

Naruto let out a small breath of air, "I guess you can say...I hit the restart button," he somewhat joked.

 

"Naruto!" A body ran into Naruto's back, hugging him for dear life. Naruto looked down at the arms and saw the chubby fingers and chuckled.

 

"Hey there Cho-chan! I'm glad to see you too!" He turned slightly to see Chouji with tears in his eyes, his hair was still long, but it went down to his shoulders and not his back yet. He patted the Akamichi on the head, "is there anyone else that made it back with us?" He asked looking at the other closed doors.

 

"Naruto!" Naruto turned to the other end of the hallway to see Hinata, Neji, and Gaara running over to him. Hinata reached him first, like the others, she had tears running down her face, "thank heavens your alive! I thought we all died and would never see each other again!" She cried and joined in on the hugging.

 

"Well, I'm fine now, we all are, right?" Naruto said as he patted her head.

 

Neji sniffed as he wiped a tear from his eyes, "what happened? While we were in the forest, something attacked us from behind, but the only thing I can recall was laying in a pool of blood with you guys around me." He said sadly, "are we in heaven now?"

 

"I don't think we're in heaven," Gaara said quietly.

 

"Huh? Why do you say that?" Shikamaru asked as he wiped his eyes.

 

"Because I wouldn't be here if we were," Gaara said as he looked down at his feet.

 

Naruto began to chuckle at that, "don't be silly Gaara, they would be crazy not to let you into heaven!" He smiled brightly at the redhead, he looked around at everyone and noticed some people missing, "where's Ino, Sasuke, and the others?"

 

"I don't know," Chouji sniffed, "when I woke up, I was in my old room in Naruto's first house. It was actually really empty, like when we first moved in so I didn't recognize it right away. When I went looking for you guys, I couldn't find anyone until just now." 

 

"What about Sasuke? Did anyone see Sasuke on the way here?" Naruto asked a little worriedly.

 

"I haven't gotten a chance to look for him just yet, I was only able to find Gaara and Neji a moment before finding you," Hinata explained. She continued to hug Naruto, like Chouji, not wanting to let go.

 

Naruto felt a sinking feeling in his heart, "I wonder where he could be right now..." Everyone fell silent as they thought about their possibly lost friend.

 

"I-I right here, N-Naruto," everyone turned around to see Sasuke dressed in an all-white kimono with slightly dark yellow trim and designs of feathers. Sasuke shrank back when he saw the others looking at him, "h-hi," he timidly waved at them, not knowing what to expect.

 

"SASUKE!" Surprised by the sudden outburst of his name, Sasuke was stunned to find himself being tackled in a hug by nearly everyone. 

 

"Oi, Sasuke, I see you've finally traded in your attitude for a better one." Shikamaru joked as he hooked an arm around Sasuke's shoulders, "by the way, nice clothes, they look good on you."

 

"T-thanks," Sasuke blushed a little, he wasn't used to them being so open with him. Before there would ways be this tough tension between them that said there was almost going to be a fight if someone said the wrong thing. He was happy with this new reaction to him, he liked it much better.

 

"Come to think of it, why are we all wearing white?" Hinata asked as she looked around the group, just about everyone was wearing white kimono with yellow trim and feather designs. The only person not wearing that was Naruto, who was dressed in a white yakata with darkish yellow hakuma and a yellow and white open gei (like the traditional mean's outfit for getting married but with yellow and white as the colors). "Did someone change out clothes while we were sleeping?"

 

"It would probably make sense since there was so much blood before..." Neji started as he looked down at his clothes. "However, I remember that I was wearing this before waking up again."

 

"Hey, yeah, I kind of remember wearing this thing too," Shikamaru pipped up, "what about you guys?"

 

"I do."

 

"Me too."

 

"Same."

 

Naruto thought back to when he woke up in the nursery the first time. He faintly remembered what he was wearing since he was more focused on what was going on around him. He never liked being the one to be caught off guard and unprepared for things. He looked around at every there,  _"Kurama's missing?"_

 

**"No, I'm not you brat! I'm still inside you, remember?"**

 

"Eh, haha, oh, I forgot that you were still inside," Naruto laughed relieved.

 

The other's looked at him confused, "who are you talking to, Naruto?" Asked Chouji.

 

"Ah, sorry, I was talking to Kurama. Before leaving for the exams, I resealed him in the seal because he wanted to go so badly. Boy, I'm glad I did because I don't know if he would have come back with us if not," Naruto explained before doing some hand signs. 

 

A swirl of purple smoke appeared in front of the group from seemingly thin air, taking form until it turned into the human form of Kurama. The said fox boy yawned and stretched, "man am I glad to be free again."

 

"*Gasp* Kurama! Your belly! You're not pregnant anymore!" Hinata pointed out.

 

"Huh?" Kurama looked down at himself, he was also wearing one of the kimonos like the others, only he had a matching jacket like Naruto. He put a hand on the top of his belly and slid it down to the bottom, showing how flat it still was. He frowned, "you're right," he looked up at everyone else, "you guys aren't pregnant either."

 

Shikamaru and Chouji felt their stomachs, Shikamaru's was flat while Chouji's was its usual pug. Neji's stomach was still firm, but it was toned with muscle, so was Hinata's, and Gaara's. Sasuke's stomach wasn't very big to begin with in the first place so he couldn't tell. "Naruto, what happened to our bellies? Did our babies shrink back to being only a few weeks?" Neji asked, he was really looking forward to having his babies, so he was kind of sad about it.

 

Naruto thought back to his time in the nursery, "hm, I think I know what happened. Come on, follow me." He led the group back the way he came from when he first woke up. He stopped in front of the doors and let them see inside the nursery, "this place is called 'The Nursery', I know I have explained it to you already, Shikamaru. Chouji. But the others don't know, so I'll explain it again."

 

Neji and the others were confused by his meaning. "What do you mean, Naruto? Why are we in a nursery with so many cribs?"

 

"This place is apart of the house I used to have before formally building the Kitsune clan with you guys. It was a couple months before the first C-rank mission that team seven did with team ten, before I left was the last time I ever saw it standing again." Naruto looked up at the ceiling, remembering all the work he put into building the structure around them, "I built this place with my own hands and thousands of clones. I saved up what I could and planned to make an empire out of this place," he closed his eyes with a soft sigh, "but then they burnt it down....killing all my children before my eyes."

 

Hinata gasped, "that's terrible! Who would do such a thing?"

 

Sasuke walked into the room a little and looked around. "You mean that all these beds are filled with...your children?" He turned around to face Naruto, "how?"

 

Naruto opened his eyes and looked at Sasuke, "because I couldn't stop a mob of women coming after me when I'm trying to look like an idiot. It would blow my cover and I couldn't have that. Not yet anyway."

 

"But why?" Sasuke asked, "why are they coming after you like this?" He opened his arms to gesture to the room, "you mean they honestly did this to get all of these children from you?" Why?" He looked at Naruto with sad eyes, "I don't understand."

 

Naruto nodded his head, "I know, I know. Listen, you all know that Kurama's actually the nine tails right?" He looked at everyone else and they nodded their heads since he told them before the wedding.

 

Only Sasuke wasn't around to hear the news, so he was caught off guard by the revelation. Suddenly all the things he knew about Naruto before now started to make more sense, while more questions started to come up in his mind. Like  _"why was he the one to hold the nine tails when most of the test books say that Iko was the one that held the fox at bay?"_ And  _"why did everyone hate Naruto because of the fox if they know he is the one saving them?"_ The questions kept coming and he wanted more answers.

 

Naruto walked over to one of the rocking chairs in the room and watched his clones check on the sleeping babies while he spoke. Even one gathered around him in the empty chairs next to him or sat next to him on the floor. "When I was about three, I tried to play a prank on my family. It was something simple to see if they actually cared about me or not, but I guess at the time I thought it was just another way for me to get attention from them like Iko was doing without even trying to. Back then they were always praising her for being something, brave, strong, smart, it was always something about her, never about me. I was sick of it. So, I planned a prank that would be sure to knock their socks off. And it worked, they were shocked alright...but only because my prank scared Iko so much. The point of the prank was to make them think that I was dead and therefore, they would more my death and say how sad they were that they were such bad parents. That they had messed up so bad that there was no fixing what they had done to their only son. Well, none of that happened because when they came home and saw me laying the floor, covered in raspberry jelly, Iko screamed and started t cry. So my  _father_ wrapped me up in a blanket while my  _mother_ took my sister into the next room for ice cream or something after he wrapped me up in a blanket, he threw me away in the trash by the curb. After some time, I managed to get out of the trash and tried to get back inside the house, but the doors were locked and I couldn't get inside. So I decided to wonder about for a while, trying to find a place to sleep. I managed to end up in the red light district by change and was found walking about by some men there...they took me to an old rundown hotel and...rapped me."

 

 Gaara held the blond's hands, "Naruto..." he said softly and the blond shook his head.

 

"I'm fine." He reassured them before clearing his throat, "when they were done with me, they left me alone in the room I eventually got up and found my way back home. By that time, it was already the next day and I was in big trouble."

 

"What? How could they do that to you? You were only three!!" Sasuke said enraged.

 

"Not to mention that they must have known you were the Hokage's son. Did they not care about getting into trouble at the time?" Neji asked confused.

 

Naruto chuckled, "you would think that that simple logic would have prevented what had happened to me that night. But so far, as I have come to figure out, no one gives a rat's ass about me. Well...other than you guys, there's no one else." He shook his head and took in a deep breath, "when I finally got back into the house, all I wanted to do was sleep and never way up. I was just too tired for anything else. But that that woman had to call my name."

 

"What woman?" Hinata asked.

 

Naruto grimised, " _Kushina_." He said the name as if it was venimous, "she asked me where I was all night as if she didn't know that her son was thrown away like a bag of unwated waste.  I told her the truth of what happened to me that night, but she didn't believe me. She picked up, slammed me to a wall, and...raped me...for the first time." There was a sudden lump in his throat that made him what to throw up everything he had for lunch for the past week. He could see that this was the same reation all around, even the clones that was not really listening wore a grim look on their faces as they continued walking around the room like the ninjas they are. Silent as shadows. "I think what was wores was when Mikoto cheered her on and joined her every so often after that." Sasuke's eyes widened, this was something he hadn't heard about his mother yet, Naruto looked at him in the eyes seriously, "she was there that day. She saw the whole thing too."

 

Sasuke's hands shook in his lap and he looked down at his lap. "I-I...I'm sorry, Na-"

 

"Stop, there's no need for that now." Naruto shook his head and looked over at one of the clones that was tending to a baby that seemed to have woken up recently, but was being quite in his arms. "After a while, I started developing ways to stay out of sight, leave the house without being noticed. Escape my room incase I felt her coming. Sense where my enemy is at all times whenever they were getting close. Go unseen for days if possible. But..." he stood up from his seat and walked over to the clone that was holding the baby, it was starting to cry. "There were always those that found me, no matter how hard I tried on some days, so I came up with a plan to use clones to get away from them. It wasn't s fool proof plan, I still got their memories and experiances, but at lest while my clones are hunted down, I would be able to take a break before falling into unwanted hands again." He took the child in his arms and looked at it, it was a girl, as he remembered, bright blue eyes with dark blond hair and tanned skin. She was different from the baby he saw when he first woke up in the nursery, she had faded whisker marks on her cheeks and was named Roza. This one was Yumi, she was one of the smaller children that he had taken and usually very quite, she always knew which Naruto was the real one,  _"like Yuza..."_ his brain reminded him. Looking around the room, he noticed that it wasn't to the time where Yuza had been born yet, so they were probably still a few months further from the time he originally thought they were in. He walked around the room as he tried to see what child was there still and what child hadn't made it yet, from his guess, he must be a good ways off from the chunin exams still. He stopped in front of one crib with butterflies as decorations, he looked inside and saw a child that looked almost like Sasuke but also looked like him.  _"I see, so we came this far back, huh?"_ He thought with a small smile on his face and looked down at Yumi, "do you even know how I missed you?" He whispered softly, Yumi just looked up at him with matching, curious blue eyes.

 

"Is that Yumi?" Shikamaru asked softly as he walked over to Naruto, the others followed suit, curious about the children.

 

Naruto nodded, "yes, if I had to guess, I'd say she's still only four to six months old right now," he turned to Shikamaru and held out his arms. "Would you like to get to know her again?" Shikamaru wasted no time in taking Yumi from Naruto's arms, when he was first introduced to the little girl before, she cried loudly and woke up all the other babies in the nusery. Now, however, Yumi was only looking at him curiously, almost as if she knew him already, Naruto smiled, happy to note the affects of the Siko wasn't too major on them.

 

"Naruto, how did all of these babies get here?" Hinata asked, one of the clones had let her hold one of the new born babies that was a little over three weeks old. This child was a boy with red hair and green eyes, brining out the strong Uzumaki features that Naruto didn't get because of the stronger Namikaze geans in him. He remembered naming this boy Haz, for some reason, it just seemed to fit.

 

Naruto debeated in his head if he wanted to tell her about his meathod or not to see how she would react. He decided that it would be best to tell those who don't know now so things go smother in the future for him. "After all the times I was attacked by crazy, perverted women, I remembered most of their faces and and it was only putting a name with the face that led me to them. After I find out which one is pregnant, I tack them and let them think that they are going to have a happy life while rasing a child from me, until I take their dream away. The same way they took my sense of mind and security away. I would usually bring them back to this compund and do the oporation, on them my self with help from Kurama. After I take out my child safely, I take out their womb as punishment for violating me before..." he explained as if he was talking about the weather, "I know it may sick and twisted, but this is my small act of revenge on them. At least I don't go around killing them and darw even more attention to myself."

 

Hinata absorbed this information, nodding her head slowly, "does that mean you know medical ninjutsu?" She asked curiously and Naruto smiled, it seemed that she cared more about him than the moral compromise of his actions.

 

"No, but I've learned a lot anatemy since I started," Naruto explained.

 

Neji scratched the back of his neck, "well maybe you should start learning medical ninjutsu. In fact, I think we all can learn it," he suggested with a thoughtful look on his face.

 

"Hm, what are you thinking about Neji?" Chouji asked curiously as he walked over with some baby formula in one hand and two bottles in the other.

 

"I was thinking that, since Naruto's doing all of this himself most of the time. We could probably help him out and also gain some knowledge in the meantime." Neji explained, he looked at the others, "with the byakugan, Hinata and I could help guid his hand to spoints that could help him make a quicker operation. And with some knowledge on the arts, we can all find a medical way to make the person forget that they ever were pregnant with his child. Or do the exact opposit and let them never forget it."

 

"How?" Shikamaru asked, getting interested in Neji's train of thought.

 

"I'm not sure, there was a medical book in the branch compound of the Hyuugas that talked a little about that kind of thing. However, it was very limited in information and restictive on the subject that would let any branch member have more knowledge than the main house. There are a lot of books like that in the branch side so I was never fully able to get interested the subject, thought there have been some members to go on to be fine nurses from the side branch. Yet their knowledge is still lacking even after all their studying and hard work pays off."

 

Hinata frowned, "then we're going to have to change that soon," she spoke with a fire in her eyes. In split second, Naruto thought he saw a glimps of what she wouls look like in the future, confident and brave.

 

As everyone was talking about this subject, Gaara was looking into one of the cribs nearby. The bed held a small child about nine months old, he had short white hair that almost looked like starlight in the late evening light, steelly gray eyes that seemed to peasre your very soul, and pure skin. The nine-month-old was currently looking ack at Gaara just as curiously as the redhead was looking at him, his crib was decorated in flowers, which seemed odd for a boy's crib. "Gaara? You okay?" Naruto asked coming to stand next to him.

 

"...What's his name?" He asked the blond as he continued to stair at the baby.

 

Naruto looked at his son, "Yuji, he was sort of a mystory when he was born," he admited.

 

"Why?"

 

"He was one of the first to have been born," Naruto said as he reached down and gently picked up his son. "He was also the first one to survive the restraction of him mom. I was still practicing on my technique, sometimes I thought I would never get it right, but I kept going. I lost a few along the way, but just when I thought Yuji would be one of them, he wasn't." He smiled at Gaara, "could you believe that he was clinicly dead for nearly seven minutes before he took his first breath of air?" He looked into Yuji's eyes, "that's when I knew he had to have gotten some luck from up above to actually survive."

 

"Wow, I didn't take you as a religous man, Naru," Shikamaru said as he took a bottle from Chouji to feed Yumi.

 

The blond father chuckled lightly, "don't make me life, Kami's never cared too much about me before. Why should she change her mind now?"

 

"Can I...hold him?" Gaara asked, his eyes still curiously glued to the child in Naruto's arms. 

 

Naruto nodded and handed Yuji over to Gaara, the two of them stared at each other for a long while before Yuji lifted up his hand to Gaara's cheek. It was then that a soft smile broke out on the redhead's face and he held the boy close. Naruto turned away from the scene to look over to Sasuke. Ever since the others had joined him by the baby beds, there was one that Sasuke couldn't look away from. Naruto stood next to him and looked into the crib as well, "Her name's Chihime, do you remember her?"

 

Sasuke continued to stare at the sleeping child, "she's so small now. And quite. I didn't reconize her from before," he looked at Chihime for a while longer before turning to face Naruto. There was a question he wanted to ask, but he wasn't sure how he would feel when it was answered. "Is this...i-is this m-my sister?" Naruto nodded slowly and Sasuke could feel the lump in his throat get thicker, he looked back at the napping girl. "Wh-"

 

"I already told you how. Your mother was there that day. She saw everything and joined in...Unfortunetly, she was on of the ones that I couldn't properly erase the memories of." Naruto explained, "she got away from me that day, not physically, I had to leave her in front of the hospital before she died in my hands. I guess they were able to save her, but it seems like her mind was too much of a mess to put back together...now she runs an organization that targets me at every turn."

 

"Why?"

 

"Because they think that having my baby as their own will make them irrisitable towards men everywhere. So they chase me. But after a while, their belifs changed and they only wanted me, no one else would do for them." Naruto turned to Sasuke and placed a hand on his head, patting it slowly, "I forgive you for your past, as long as you promise to look towards the future with me. With us." He stated, "do you agree?"

 

Tears slowly filled Sasuke's eyes, he nodded his head, "yes, I'll do anything for you, It took me some time to realize it, but after the time in the forest...I realized that I...I love you."

 

Naruto stopped patting Sasuke's head, looked into his eyes, searching them. He found what he was looking for and pulled Sasuke in a hug and the Uchiha softly cried and held onto the blond. "That's all I wanted," he whispered into his ear, "I want everyone I care about to be happy. I would do anything to make sure that everyone was living happily even if I'm not there."

* * *

**The next day**

_Yamanaka Compound_

 

Ino jolted awake and looked around. Where was she?

 

What time is it?

 

Why did her head hurt? Her body felt a little sore too.

 

What was going on? 

 

Geting up slowly, Ino looked around at the contents of her room. Why was she back in her room? The last thing she could remember was being at the Forest of Death, getting ready to take the second part of the chunin exams, and then getting attacked, and...she's here. Why?

 

How?

 

What did she need to do to get some answers around here! 

 

At this point, Ino decided to stop asking herself questions and get out of bed. She didn't like staying in bed and lazing about like she would have when she was still in the academy. Instead, she wanted nothing more than to get up and start training. Ha, it's funny, after she graduated the academy, all she wanted to do was show Sasuke what a great ninja she was and then marry him and have his babies and blah, blah, blah...But a little before Naruto married Shikamaru, Chouji, Neji, Hinata, Gaara, _and_ Sasuke, she realized that she was being childish, so she asked him for some training advice to help her get her life going in the right direction. At first it was hard, but she stuck to it and eventually got the hang of training under Naruto's watchful eye until a month later when she didn't need him to watch her go through her training every day. Now she does it automatically once she ways up, it makes her feel a whole lot better about herself than when she was in the academy. She was starting to look better too once got off her stupid diet. Now that she was thinking about it, she realized something major changed about her body once she got a look at herself in the mirror. Before he chest looked like they were starting to grow the way she always wanted, but now they looked flat again. Before, she looked like she had gained a health yamount of waight, however, now it looked like she was dipping below the scales again. In addition to looking like her oldself, she felt like her oldself again too. And that was not something she liked. So from all that she gathered, she narrowed down her options to either she somehow managed to timetravel back to her old body, before the lifestyle change. Or she was just having a really bad dream. Being real with herself, the evidence was too overwhelming to dispute, she decided that she would do her usual morning routen, grab breakfast, and then head out to find Naruto and the other to see if they were having the same dream or not. And if not, get answers as to how she was back in her old body. With that said, Ino decided to start of as usual, pushing through the pain of her stiff, weak body, to do fifty pushups, situps, squats, and jumping jacks. Usually her set goal was at least a hundred per day, but since her body was like the one she had when she started all this training in the first place. If not more. She didn't want to push herself too hard and face the consiquences later. Next, she would usually go for a couple mile run, pushing herself to break her record from the day before like Naruto incouraged her to do when she started as a motivational tool. However, this morning, she didn't think she could manage three miles before collapsing after her previous workout, so to make sure that this doesn't happen, she decided to take a shower and get ready for the day before doing more excersises. After taking a shower, watching her hair, and dressing, she made her way down to the kitchen to make herself something to eat. One of the things that she had learned from hanging around Naruto's curicle all the time was how to cook, she wasn't too bad it if she did say so herself. Making a couple of eggs into a delicious omlete with herbs and spices was now a breeze for her, she pared the omlete with some toast, jam, orange juice, and a cininmon bun from a box she found in the fridge still fresh from the bakery because she found her love for sweets again because of her fellow blond. She set the table and got ready to eat her fill. 

 

When she was just about done eating, her father walked into the room, "good morning, Ino." He yawned on his way over to the fridge and froze.

 

Ino looked up from her nearly empty plate of cinnamon dessert, "morning daddy. Is there something wrong?" Asked, noticing his frozen state.

 

Inoichi slowly turned around to look at his daughter fulling. Taking in everything from her hair to her clothes, and finally, to the food in front of her. Mostly because it was actual food on the plate and not two grams of rice and a carrot stick with a pinch of salt on the side. He usual diet breakfast choice of the day, "Ino..." he started slowly.

 

"Yes, daddy?" Ino answered just as slowly as him.

 

"are you feeling okay?" He asked steadily as he watched for her reaction.

 

Ino took a moment to think of a goo answer that wouldn't free out her dad so much. Let it be known that her father wasn't in the interrogation unit for no reason, so she had to be careful. "I'm fine daddy, I'm just having breakfast. Is there something wrong with that?" Ino asked casually as she finished her food.

 

"Uh, no, no sweety, there's nothing wrong. Nothing at all. It's just that..." He trailed off, try come up with a good way to say his next words without setting of the teenager bomb Ino was known for. "It's just, um, well...your eating more today than what you usually do, that's all. I mean just yetserday you wouldn't even let me say 'Omlete and toat; in front of you without screaming at me about trying to make you fat! Haha," Inoichi chuckled nervously as he remembered the day before.

 

Ino sort of remembered that day too. She was starving really bad but her diet sources told her that she would blow up in size if one single egg yoke touched her lips. From there she decided that all eyes, every part of it, was nothing but bad news and she wouldn't touch it no matter what anyone said. She was still pretty obsessed with Sasuke back then, now she just felt silly for the whole thing, sweat-dropping at the memory of her past-self, Ino decided that she would make things right. "That's right! I'm so sorry about that daddy, I was wrong about that I will never do that again!" She said and stuffed the rest of her food into her mouth, following that with some orange juice, she put her dishes in the sink and turned to her dad, "thanks for reminding me of how dumb I was being. But that's over now, no more diets for me! If I'm going to be the best konoichi I can be, I can no longer starve myselve like that, so from now on, I'm going to eat right and work out like I'm supposed to!" She said with a bright smile, stunning her father.

 

"But what about winning Sasuke's heart with your looks?" Inoichi asked, still stunned.

 

Ino chuckled and hugged her father, "no way I'm going to chase after a boy on looks alone dad! I'm worth more than that!" She let him go and ran for the front door.

 

"Huh? Wait, where are you going? It's Saturday!" Inoichi said just as Ino turned the corner.

 

Ino pocked her head back into the kitchen, "I told you, I'm going to start working out now! See you later dad! I'll be with my friends!" And she ran out the front door without another word.

 

"Work out? No diet?... Is the world coming to an end!" Inoichi grabbed his head in shock and ran towards the window, "the's sky hasn't fallen...yet," he said with a sure look in his eye. He heard the sound of a bell ringing from below and looked to see that his daughter was running down the street, away from Yamanaka Flowers and their home. He pouted as he watched her leave, she wasn't wearing her usual purple outfit, instead, she had on a pink shirt with black bicycle shorts and running shoes. He sighed, "they grow up so fast."

* * *

**At Naruto's compound**

 

Ino managed to run all the way over to Naruto's place after ducking in and out of ally ways. Naruto showed her the way to his compound some time back when he started training her. She had become reasonablely close to the new clan head at the time that he trusted her enough to known one of his big secrets. She found the old tunnle that Naruto mentioned before, showing her what to do and where to go once as he led the way to the old burned down compound. She figured that if she was in her old body again, that she might get to see the compound in its glory, she heard Shikamaru and Chouji talk about it many times before, showing their love for it. She knew that the compound was really, really big, maybe bigger than some of the other well established clan compounds in the village. Not only that, but there were two other unfinished housings behind that that were only half that size, she heard about the pool there and really wanted to go for a swim in it if it turned out that her obtomistice theroy was true. If not, then she would know where to find them. Shikamaru raved about the library there and Chouji coiuldn't stop talking about the beautiful kitchen and bathrooms, there's supposed to be a game room there that's more advanced than the arcade placed in some parts of the village. Taking a turn into the forest off the beaten path, Ino made sure to reinact the training she got from Naruto about knowing when you've been followed and losing your tail quickly. So far she hasn't been followed and that was how she wanted to keep it. She saw the dense part of the woods that Narut told her about, the feeling of being daunted by the forest was getting stronger and stronger the more she walked, making her want to stop and turn back more than once already. However, since she wasn't how she used to be, she wasn't going to do that, seeing if her friends were actually here was the only thing that seemed to be keeping her going at the moment. Ino passed through the first layer of the forest and moved on to the second, it suddenly got darker and darker the further she went, but she kept moving, she got to the second layer and felt a cold chill run down her back. Naruto had warned her about the third layer, if she turned back now, all of her memories of coming her would be erased and she would never rememeber any way of coming back here again, so now she really buckled down and forced herself to move. As the air aaround her got colder and colder, the trees seemed to get bigger and bigger, the surrounding forest got darker and denser, but she moved on like a real soldier. 

 

Breaking through the fourth layer was going to be a relief at first because it would get warm, unbarely so. So she mentally prepared herself as best she could because she was nearing the end of the third layer, thankfully since she didn't bring a jacket with her, though Naruto did teach her a little trick on staying warm with her chakra. Letting her chakra rush through her veins quickly and then slowly took consentration, it was also a way to refine chakra control, which was how she kept her body warm and her chakra in shape. She was sure that if she stuck to just the third layer as practice, she would be able to master her chakra control quickly until it came as natural as breathing air. Moving to the fourth layer also gave her a chance to do another chakra excersis that Naruto told her about, instead of letting her chakra rush around and slow down in her veins, she now had to bring her chakra outwards and wip it around herself like a fan to keep cool. Both excersises were taking a toll on her body, but she pushed on longer. It would only get harder from here, the nexfew layers were strong genjutsus that made her lose her sense of direction so she couldn't trust her eyes but her gut. If she took a step in the wrong direction, her gut would tell her where to go, it was something that Naruto worked on with her somewhere else, but she applied the training to this situation until she made it out of the layers. Ino kept going, slowly starting to get in the rythum of both running and walking through the layers until, taking her time to note the differences in her surroundings, it wasn't until she finally made it to the end of the last layer that she realized how much Naruto's training had helped her. She felt as if she had just went through Naruto's version of the second stage of the chunin exams without anyone there to be her compotition, instead, she was her own rival. Her mind being her guid and her doubt her enemy, it felt deeper than she thought it sounded in her head. Breaking through the last layer of Naruto's barrier which happened to be another genjutsu based on, but that of sound and sight misdirection, she opened her eyes to see where she was, now that she didn't felt on edge anymore. She made sure to count the layers as she went, one more trick that Naruto taughter, counting inside your head when you can't see or hear anything made her feel more grounded as she walked through the layered surroundings.

 

"Ino? Ino, what are you doing here?" Ino looked to the right of her and saw that she was staring at Shikamaru for the first time since the forest incident at the chunin exams. He was wearing a simple light green t-shirt with baggy cargo shorts that ended a few inches above the ankle. His hair was let lose and was flowing in the gentle breeze that flowed around them. It was summery time with a spring time feel all around them and Ino finally realized that she made it, she had gone through a genjutsu similar to this in the layers before. So she didn't completely let down her guard right away as she watched Shikamaru walk over to her with a baby wrapped up in a sling across his chest.

 

"Wait, before you come any closer...what's the password," Ino said seriously.

 

Shikamaru paused, slightly confused about what Ino was talking abut. If it was the Ino of this time, then she wouldn't know to ask that, but if it wasn't...."Angles Fall," he replied.

 

Ino looked into his eyes seriously, they stared at each other for a few seconds more before she nodded, "good. It's you," she sighed.

 

"Of course it's me, Ino, would I know if it wasn't?" Shikamaru asked with a roll of his eyes.

 

"If that's so, then tell me the reason why we picked that as our password," Ino said a little on guard. This would be the test of the password, Shikamaru and Naruto came up with this and told her and Chouji about it after they became genin. If Shikamaru guessed right, it would have to be a really good guess, but the way Naruto said it, there was no guess. Why? Because the method of the password was that everytime you ask for the password, you have to change the meaning. So it was the same password each time, and anyone ease dropping could ear it. But it was the meaning of the password that would trip up your enemies. It may be a little confusing at first, if you're not used to things being so covert, then it gets easier as time goes on. As you get to know your friends and teammates. 'The Test of Meaning', was what Naruto called it.

 

Shikamaru sighed, "the 'A' is for how boring the lectures are in Iruka sensei's class and 'B' is how good the cake is on Sundays. If you take the two and put them together, you have Humble Pie." Shikamaru explained, did it make sensei, to an outsider, hell no. But to them...hell no. It was a crappy meaning that they came up with so that they could remember it, the funnier it was, the better it was to remember.

 

With that said, Ino nodded her head with a smile, "that's good, you got it right this time." She giggled, "I remember when you said it was too embarrassing to say it out loud and how troublesome it said it."

 

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "whatever, Chouji was the on who picked it, so I might as well remember it right?" He turned around and started walking back over to the main house, "come on, I'll tell everyone you're here, you came at a good time too. "

 

"Why's that?" Ino asked as she followed Shikamaru to the large house. She looked up at it and stopped to marvel at its beauty, Shikamaru and Chouji were right, the place was hug! Maybe twice as big as the Yamanaka apartment style compound.

 

"Hinata and Chouji are trying to teach Sasuke and Neji how to make a layer cake for Chihime," Shikamaru explained, he looked back to see if Ino was still coming or not and saw her snap out of her daze. He smirked, "impressive work, right? Naruto and his clones did it all himself."

 

"Yeah, it-WAIT, HINATA AND CHOUJI ARE TEACHING SASUKE HOW TO BAKE!!" Ino just about shouted.

 

The baby in Shikamaru's sling started crying because of the sudden noise, "awe man, thanks a lot Ino, I just got her to sleep!" 

 

Ino had the decency to be embarrassed by her actions, "ah, sorry, sorry," she apologies. 

 

Shikamaru heaved a sigh as he sooth the baby, "it's alright, I guess it is kinda shocking. But don't be so careless next time!" He scrolled her, she nodded and apologized again as they walked back into to the large house.

* * *

**With everyone else**

 

"It's falling, it's falling!" 

 

_SLAPT!_

 

"Muuu, that's not fair! How come Neji's cake is standing up like that?!" Sasuke whined.

 

"Because I told you to use the dowels, and you didn't listen to me. Serves you right," Neji said classicly smug so that it didn't look like he was being outwardly smug to the Uchiha's face. Although it was enjoying the look on Sasuke's face as he glanced over to the Uchiha. He was scowling at him as usual.

 

"Now, now you two, play nice. Remember who has to clean up this mess when you're done," Chouji scolded them. "And Neji, you shouldn't put all the dowels in one place or else the cake may tip over when you put the next layer on top."

 

"Take that, Neji!" Sasuke said somewhat childishly.

 

Hinata cleared her throat from behind Sasuke, he jumped, "you're one to talk, this is the second cake you've ruined today." Sasuke sulked as Hinata reminded him of his past failings, she handed him a mop and broom, "make sure you clean up after yourself once you're done salvaging the cake."

 

"What? We're still going to use it?!" Sasuke asked turning around to her as he walked over to his work station.

 

"Yes, we are, it only fell on the counter, not the floor, so it can still be used! No hurry up, chop, chop!" Hinata clapped her hands to make her point known while Sasuke crumbled under his breath.

 

Naruto chuckled, "man you guys are cute," he turned to look next to him, "aren't they cute, Gaara?" 

 

Gaara, who was also sitting next to him to watch the other's play around with cake, could not deny that the scene was a little funny. But he wished that Naruto calling him cute too, "mhmm." He nodded his head as he patted Yuji's head, ever since yesterday, the two were inseparable. 

 

Naruto chuckled, "you're pretty cute yourself with Yuji on your lap, hehe," he patted Gaara on the head lightly as he chuckled. Gaara blushed and turned his face away from the blond, making Naruto laugh more, "adorable," a giggling in his arms caught his attention."

 

"I coot too daddy?" Came the childish voice of Chihime, she was the first one to talk out of all his children because she was a little older than the rest. However, Yuji was older than her by a few weeks. 

 

Naruto nodded, "yeah, yeah, super cute!" He cheered and tickled her until she laughed. Naruto remembered the last time around that Yuji was very shy and didn't like to go out much with anyone other than Naruto. Now, however, he seems to have made great friends with Gaara. He hoped that Yuji would start talking like Chihime soon, it would be nice to hear what he had to say too, but he got the feeling that Yuji would be a strong silent type when he grew up. Sort of like Gaara.

 

"Oh, my Kami! This place even has a spa!" Naruto heard the sound of Ino's voice coming down the hall. He turned around to see if it was true and his eye did not fool him. Ino and Shikamaru were walking down the hallway to the kitchen as Shikamaru was telling her about all the things in the house.

 

"Oh, well would you look what we have here!" Naruto said, getting up from his seat with Chihime on his side, everyone turned to see what he was talking about, "it looks like Ino made it with us too."

 

Ino looked in front of her to see Naruto, "hia Naru, how's it going!" She said happily.

 

"All good, all good, it looks like the gangs back together. For the most part at least," he commented.

 

Ino greeted everyone and noticed someone missing, "where's Kurama?"

 

"He's taking a bath right now, he'll be out in a few," Shikamaru stated as he sat down on the other side of Naruto.

 

"Okay," Ino sat down next to Shikamaru looked around the kitchen, "I still can't believe you built all this yourself, Naruto." She looked at her fellow blond, "you must have had a lot of time on your hands, huh?" 

 

Naruto shrugged, "not really, just a lot of clones," he sat back down in his original seat. Hinata and Chouji went back to teaching Sasuke and Neji how to build a proper layered cake. "So, Ino, what do you want to know?" Ino looked at him puzzled, "you wouldn't come here if you didn't want to know something, so...what is it?"

 

Ino shrugged, "okay, how about...is this a dream we're all sharing? Or is this real?"

* * *

**One explanation and cake fight later**

 

"So it's not a dream? Woe, how does it even work?" Ino was curious.

 

"Eeh, it's sort of hard to explain, but it's like leaving your present body and coming back to your past one. You still get your chakra control, knowledge, and skills, however, your position and the ability to manage your skills don't make it back with you. Also, if you were excellent with your speed in the present, but your past self-wasn't, then you would lose that ability too. Something like that I guess." Naruto tried to explain, "anyways, I think the real question is, is how are we going to fit back into our daily lives from before without making people suspicious of us." 

 

"Hm, wait, how far back did we even go?" Chouji asked as he took out a finished cake from the fridge for his students to decorate. He looked at Sasuke and Neji seriously as he set down the three tier cake, "try to not make another mess with this one, please. Or else." Sasuke and Neji gulped, they had already had an argument on who was the better-decorating cakes, but it turned into a food fight quickly, one that Chouji and Hinata used force to stop it. They made them clean up the kitchen while they remade the cake themselves.

 

"Uh," Ino thought about what she saw on the way over here, "I think it's been about a year or so. So we're still in the academy."

 

"That's right, we are." Naruto nodded, "well then since we don't have anything else to do today, you want to just stay here all day?"

 

Ino nodded her head happily, "sure thing! Oh! I also wanted to start training with you again. Since I'm in my past body again, I'm at stage one again." Naruto agreed and the two started talking about training plans that they can do along with the others. Sasuke suggested that they could work on elemental manipulations and chakra control. Shikamaru suggested that they work on team formations just in case they manage to get on a team together. Naruto suggested studying codes and sign language. By the time they were done planning, the cake was finished and Kurama was walking into the kitchen.

 

"Hey Ino, you staying for lunch?" Kurama asked as he walked in with a smile.

 

"Yep, I'll help," Ino said getting up.

* * *

**Two days later**

 

It was the first day back to school after the weekend and Naruto and friends were just making their way to school. Ever since they met on Saturday, Ino has been spending almost all her time at Naruto's house, she has barely been at home fore more than she needed to be. They entered the building together and everyone stared at them as they entered, mostly because Naruto wasn't wearing his usual orange outfit that they were used to seeing. Instead, he was wearing a black, sleeveless turtleneck shirt, black skinny jeans, and brown army boots, on his wrist were black wrist cuffs with silver holes. Sasuke had on a black off the shoulder t-shirt with the picture of a red tomato on the front center and a white tank-top underneath, he had on dark blue skinny jeans on with black boots. Shikamaru wore the same top as Sasuke, but his was dark green and had on a tan colored tank-top underneath, his skinny jeans matched his tank-top and he wore flip-flops because the boots seemed too troublesome to him. Chouji had on a casual yellow jacket that hung down to just below the back of his knees, the jacket was open to show a plain white t-shirt, he wore classic jeans that was folded up to show his ankle. He also wore flip-flops, but his was dark blue while Shikamaru's was dark green. Hinata decided to wear a dress today since she never got to wear one after she started training in the Hyuuga style with her father as her teacher, not that he cared what she wore or anything now that Hanabi was under his wing. Her dress was picked out by Naruto, it was a simple hooded dressed that fell just below her mid-thigh, she wore red converse shoes to match her dress with black short-shorts underneath. Since Hinata wasn't sure about wearing a dress for the first time, Ino decided that she would match Hinata and wear the same dress. But hers was yellow, slightly brighter than Chouji's jacket, and matching converse shoes. Gaara was wearing a bright red sweater that was two sizes bigger because Naruto thought it was a cute look on him, he also had on ripped skinny jeans and black and white converses. Lastly, Kurama had on a dark red crop-top that tied behind his neck, it had the picture of a chines dragon, he wore that with dark blue jeans shorts that reached his mid-thigh, and he had on red flip-flops on his feet. Since Neji isn't a student of the academy anymore, he had to leave them to meet up with his team, which he was sure would be in their usual spot at the training ground. This morning, Naruto had got Neji to wear something more casual, he had him wear a dark brown open jacket like Chouji, with a white V-neck t-shirt, dark blue skinny jeans, black converses, and a half beenie that hid his curse mark on his forehead. Or the sport where the seal would have been since Naruto took off the caged bird seal from Neji the day before.

 

 Naruto's group walked into their usual class at the academy and everyone stopped to look at them when they noticed new people in the room. There were whispering on why they were with Naruto and why they were not dressed like their usual selves. They also wanted to know why they weren't sitting in their usual seats or acting their usual way. Ino would be fawning over Sasuke right about now, Sasuke would be ignoring everyone and thing as he broods at whatever is outside the window. Hinata would not be anywhere near Naruto, infact, she would have already have fainted by now. They wondered why Shikamaru and Chouji's clothes seemed more civilian casual than ninja casual (because there is a difference apperently). They wanted to know why Naruto wasn't in orange, and who those two new students were with them. But mainly, they really wanted to know why they were all hanging around Naruto of all people.

 

But if you ask me, the whole class seemed to be filled witht obviously nosey motherfuckers that can't mind their own business. Just saying.

 

"Hey! Dobe, what the hell are you doing hanging around HInata-chan?!" Came a shout from the back of the room. 

 

Naruto looked up to see Kiba standing by his row. He blinked his eyes at him slowly before turning back to the conversation that he had been having with Ino before Kiba came. "So like I was saying, we can meet up at the house and train with weights until dinner time."

 

"Oh, yeah, that sounds great. Hey, you think I can sleep over this time? I want to get an early start on tr-" Ino replied before Kiba interupted the converstaion again.

 

"HEY! DON'T IGNORE ME!!" Kiba yelled, drawing attention to him from the whole class. "I SAID, WHAT DID YOU DO TO HINATA!"

 

Naruto and Ino both looked at him as if he was the most annoying thing on earth. "I haven't done anything to her, as you can clearly see, she's right there," he said gesturing to the seat next to Ino with Hinata sitting with a book in front of her. "Now, if you don't mind, I would like t-"

 

"Shut up dobe, I know you did something to her, you had to have! I mean, why else would she be hanging around a dobe like you," he said with a smirk, as if that would hurt his feelings. Which id didn't.

 

It only annoyed Naruto more, "look, Kiba, I get that you're not very bright, but you don't have to bring everyone down to your level. Now, I am trying to have a conversation with my friend, so you can leave now. If you want to talk to Hinata, go around to the other side and talk, I don't have the pastiants to deal with you right now." Naruto stared Kiba in the eye hard, he was waiting for the boy to get the hint, but like the dobe that Kiba really was, he didn't get shit.

 

"Yeah, I see her, but what I want to know is why is she handing out with you!" Kiba folded his arms in front of his chest as ig that would make him look big and bad, but Akamaru seemed to be feeling uneasy about the situation as he sat atop his master's head.

 

"Humph, Kiba, you baka, I'm trying to talk to Naruto. What's your problem? Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners, dog breath?" Ino said getting frustrated by Kiba's rudness.

 

"You have nothing to do with this, Ino, so butt out. The guys are talking here," Kiba said as he turned his attention back to Naruto. "Like I said, Hina-"

 

Just as he went to tell Naruto off some more, a powerfull force hit him and sent him flying into the wall on their left. The other students watching the little argument stopped what they were doing and gasped. Kids got out of the way when Kiba was sent flying into the wall. They turned to see who hit him and was even more shocked to see that it was Hinata standing with her arm outstretched in the timpical palm strick towards Kiba's direction. Hinata put her arm down slowly and everyone saw that her byakugan was activated, "I'm trying to read, Kiba, try talking a little quieter the next time! It's rude to just interupt people when they're minding their own busness!" She huffed angrily before sitting back down in her seat and going back to reading.

 

Naruto and Ino shrugged their shoulders and went back to talking. "So you want to come over for morning training tomorrow?" Naruto asked casually.

 

"I was actually wondering if I could stay over tonight to get an early start, do you mind?" Ino asked.

 

"Not at all, you're always welcomed to my house, anytime you want. My door is always opened to friends," he said with a bright smile. 

 

The others in the room watched the conversation play out for a while, the only thing in their minds were,  _"what the fuck just happened?"_

 

 

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your suggestions inspire me to write more. So keep them coming! :3


	4. The rewind

Clearly, time travel doesn't exist.

 

It just doesn't happen every day, so its next to impossible to believe.

 

So, with that said, how did Naruto and the others end up one year into the past?

 

* * *

 

 

Naruto was in the back of the class reading a novel that he had recently found. In the previous timeline, Naruto wasn't always able to read so freely because he always had to find ways to do other things, like earning money and being liberated from those fools that dared to call themselves his family. He ignored the class before him, he had already seen, learned, and done everything he needed to from the academy in the previous timeline, so this was more like an unwanted refresher course. So boring. To his left, Sasuke was sitting quietly with a frown on his face, even though he had apologized for everything he's done before, he still feels bad about it. Naruto didn't want one of his wives to feel that way, so he took a break from his book and slid an arm around Sasuke's shoulders, surprising the Uchiha. The said boy turned to Naruto and blushed, Naruto smirked, "what's with that down face all of a sudden? Are you trying to turn me on?" He whispered in Sasuke's ear so only he could hear, Sasuke blush got brighter and turned his head away from him, but made no moves to try to get away. Naruto chuckled, "you know, now that you're not resisting me anymore, I must say that you have a nice body," he put down his book and let his now free hand dip under the table and rest on Sasuke's thigh, "would you mind if I had a taste?" He asked, causing the other boy to turn as red as his favorite fruit. 

 

"N-N-Naruto, w-w-we're s-still in c-class," Sasuke whispered back, still not trying to move away.

 

"So what, no one's looking, come on," Naruto whispered back as his hand slid higher on Sasuke's thigh, getting dangerously close to his groin. A sharp jab to his right made him pause, he glanced over at the person, it was Hinata. "Huh? What's up, you want some too?" He whispered to her, making her blush a little, but she nodded her head forward, towards the class, who seemed to be watching them now. Naruto looked around at the other students, they weren't outright staring, but they were glancing back at them and whispering. Naruto sneered, "what are you guys looking at?" He saw the fangirls getting ready to get up from their chairs, but he didn't care, he sighed as he leaned back in his seat, his arm still around Sasuke's shoulders, and he picked up his book with his other hand again. He might as well see how the book ended since he couldn't get any action right now. Hinata sighed and went back to studying the book that Naruto gave her on medical jutsus. It had already been a month since Naruto and the others had managed to travel back in time. Since then, Naruto had taken it upon himself to train his wives and Ino as best he could, when he could, which was a little hard seeing as how he hadn't made the Kitsune clan just yet. When he tried to see if he could reform the clan earlier than last time but couldn't. It turned out that he could form a clan as a civilian and then turn it into a ninja clan if he gained ninja status, but he had to be at least sixteen with three other members already ready to join him in making the clan. So, in reality, if he wanted to reform the clan early, he would have to wait until he passed the genin test, again, in order to form the clan. But, since he already had Ninji, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Chouji, Gaara, Kurama, and Hinata in the clan, he would run into some roadblocks sooner than expected. Why? Because he had seven guys, including him, to one girl. The rules stated that it was one girl to every three guys, so now, he needed to find another girl to join his clan or else the civilian council would use this one loophole to thwart his plans. So annoying. But who could he ask? Ino? She was good with the babies, now that they knew about them, she came around every day to help out with them, playing and taking care of them as if they were her own. That was a possibility, then again, he didn't want to make her feel as if she had to marry him just so his clan could be formed, he wasn't like that at all. On the other hand, he could probably ask TenTen, since Neji has been hanging out with him more now, they got to meet sooner than before. TenTen wasn't a bad choice, when he was little, Naruto happened to have a somewhat crush on her at one point before entering the academy. 

 

Nevertheless, he had to think of something soon. If he wanted Gaara to be able to stay in the village, he would have to find a way to form the clan soon. At this point in time, he was really considering taking the genin exams early because then, he would be a ninja. If he was the only ninja, for now, he could still form the clan and have the others join it now, rather than later when they would take the original exam. But then the civilian council would try something funny, he was sure of it. They never liked to let him stay happy more than a day or some hours.  _"Or we could all become ninjas early, I'm already training them in the arts, and they seem to have come back with most of their previous skills intact."_ He thought to himself,  _"that way, they can already be out in teams, it might now be the same teams as before, but at least it would be a start. Let's see, who can be on a team? Since I registered Gaara as an official Konoha citizen, he can become a ninja with us. That stupid old man of mine has yet to ask me about him so far, so it's fine for now. Kurama was also registered at the same time, and Hinata works well with them so far. Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji are dead ringers for their parent's team, they might even be praised if they graduated early and ended up on a team with each other. Of course, then Shikaku would try keeping a closer eye on me after that, it's bothersome, but I guess I'll have to bring him into the loop soon. Who else?..."_ He thought about the people in his circle, he already put two teams together, even if they don't end up on the same teams that he thought to put them on, he could find ways to make sure that they all stay together. Sneaking into the Hokage's tower wasn't much of a problem in the timeline before, it would definitely be easier now.  _"Who could be on mine and Sasuke's team? I sure as hell don't want to have to deal with Sakura again, and Iko is still a pain in the ass, just like always."_ He sighed deeply, "troublesome."

 

Shikamaru, who was sitting in front of him, turned around to face his future husband since they technically weren't married yet at this time. "Something the matter, Naru?" He asked curiously, he had been leaning on Chouji's shoulder, trying to take a nap. But the classroom was filled with whispers about Naruto and Sasuke's 'sudden relationship', it was hard to sleep.

 

Naruto leaned forward to see Shikamaru, Sasuke was pressed more into his side as he moved. But he didn't mind, "oh. Yeah, Shika-chan, you can say that." He put down his book again and leaned his chin on his palm, "I was just thinking about the clan."

 

"Hm? The clan..." Shikamaru sat up and turned around as much as he could to face Naruto, Chouji, and Ino, who was sitting with him, did the same. "Oh, right, you mean that clan." He said remember, he didn't name names since they were still in class. They were actually still in a lecture right about now, but since they already learned this, none of them cared if they missed anything. "What about it? Are you going to try."

 

Naruto nodded, "yeah, I did, I wasn't able to get anything because of the timing. But, I was thinking, what if the test was earlier."

 

Ino wasn't used to talking in code just yet, she used to only do it when she was gossiping, but it was always something easy to read. Naruto's coding was a little more advanced than hers, so it took her a second to recognize what they were talking about. "Oh, you mean the g-" Shikamaru put a hand over her mouth.

 

"Sshhh, not so loud," Shikamaru stated.

 

Ino blushed, embarrassed by how she also let their secret plans slip, "sorry. But that's what you're talking about, right?" They nodded their heads, "okay, cool, so what about it? Are we doing it early? I think I'm just about ready."

 

Hinata nodded, "yeah, me too. I've already got through the first stage, if I take it now, I think I would be more than ready."

 

"Hmm..." Naruto got a serious face on, "Hinata, if you do this, you'll have to move out from there."

 

"What? Why so soon?" She asked.

 

"Because of  _him._ " Naruto commented creatively, "you know how  _he_ gets. He'll try to control you and probably try to make you fail or something. I don't want him messing with you right now until I know you can take care of it on your own."

 

Hinata understood she nodded her head, "Alright, I'll keep low for now."

 

Naruto nodded back, he turned to the others, "you guys should do the same. We would meet up in our usual spot and talk more about this. I have some things I want to share with you." They nodded to each other and went back to sitting as if nothing had happened.

 

They knew that Iruka and some of the others in the room heard their conversation, why wouldn't they. They were obviously showing that they were talking during Iruka's lecture and said man had not stopped them, going on talking as if he didn't notice a thing. They were sure that he would report it to the Hokage or try to get more information from them secretly, he had been suspicious of them for a while now when he saw them all hanging around each other so casually as if they had been friends for years. Ino was n't fighting with Sakura to sit next to Sasuke, in fact, she was even being friendly with Shikamaru and Chouji, not yelling at them for being lazy like before. Moreover, she was also taking naps and not paying attention to Iruka's lessons, which stabbed him in the heart a little, since he had hoped she would listen if she wasn't obsessed with Sasuke anymore. But it seemed like he was wrong. Hinata was sitting next to Naruto more often now, she also didn't faint or stutter anymore. Iruka also noticed that she would always leave with Naruto and his friends before her guardian came to pick her up after school Iruka wasn't sure if Hiashi knew he daughter was not going home with the guardian or if he just was used to sending someone to get her. Either way, it seemed like Hinata wasn't going home as much as she used to, she would rather spend more time with Naruto than at home. He worried that this may bring her father to do something about it that would force Hinata to come home more often, even though Iruka didn't know for sure how often she had been going home nowadays. The other odd thing about this group was Sasuke, the news did not take long to reach his ears, he could barely believe his eyes even now. Somehow, Naruto had managed to get Sasuke to be friendly with him. What's more, it looked like they were probably going out now! Not knowing much more than what he had heard, Iruka decided that he would only watch the group, especially the two new kids in his class, both redheads, both handsome, and both lusted after by many of the girls in the class. From what he could tell about them, they weren't Uzumaki's, Kushina didn't recognize them, then again, she left her home when she was still small and didn't know what happened to the small amount of survivors. Assuming that there were people that actually survived the events of that day. Iruka mentally sighed, there was no use in worrying about this right now, he looked up at the clock and saw that it was about time for him to finish his lecture, he turned to the class and smiled brightly at them.

 

"Okay everyone, that's it for today. Please make sure to study for this weeks quiz on the past three ninja wars, I'll also be picking up your easy early tomorrow morning before class. So try not to be late turning in your work!" Iruka stated sternly, "class dismissed!" He said just as the bell rang.

 

"Hey, Naruto, let's get some food before we go home," Chouji said happily.

 

Naruto got up, his arm was now around Sasuke's waist as they stood together, "sure thing, Cho-chan, I'm starving anyways." He looked over at Gaara and Kurama as they walked over to them, followed by a bunch of girls dressed as cheap sluts. "You guys wanna get something to eat too? Should we have barbeque tonight?"

 

"Yeah, yeah, barbeque sounds great!" Kurama cheered as he latched himself onto Naruto's other side, "I'll take mine spicy!"

 

"What, really? You still like spicy food?" Shikamaru asked, he remembered that Kurama would have strong cravings for anything spicy, it was to the point that he would start to smell like a spicy bowl of soup. 

 

Kurama nodded, "of course, I couldn't eat it that much before, so now I want it all the time!" Kurama might have craved spicy food in the previous timeline, but his body didn't. Now, however, the effects seemed to have lessened since he was no longer pregnant.

 

"Okay then, let's-"

 

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!!" Came the scream of one Sakura Haruno. 

 

Ino sighed, "what do you want, Haruno, can't you see that we're getting ready to leave?"

 

"Ha, like I care about your eating habits, Ino-pig!" Sakura stated as she marched right up to Naruto, standing in front of him and blocking his way. Not that he couldn't move her out of the way himself, still, he had to make it seem like he was still somewhat weak or something. Then again, his patience with this class and his classmates were wearing very, very thin. 

 

"What do you want, Haruno?" Naruto asked patiently.

 

"What do I want? I want to know why the hell is  _my_ Sasuke-kun hanging out with a baka like you!" She hollered.

 

"Sasu-chan's a big boy, he can take care of himself. He doesn't need you to watch his every move like some stalker," Naruto commented coolly, "now, if you don't mind. I have somewh-"

 

"Not so fast, baka!" Sakura said, stepping in his way when he went to walk around her. This was getting on the blond's nerves, and Sakura could tell by the way he clenched his teeth What she didn't know was that she was also getting on everyone else's nerves as well. "Hmph, what makes you so special to think you can hang out my Sasuke-kun so much as if you're friends or something. He should be spending more time with me, since I am obviously the better choice...right, Sasuke-kun?" She asked the last part by fluttering her eyelashes at Sasuke and trying to make herself look cute or something. 

 

However, Sasuke hadn't even been paying any attention to Sakura for the whole time she had been there talking. Instead, he had been looking at Naruto, thinking about how differently he was being treated now rather than how he was before. He could clearly see that Naruto was very kind and patient, but no one else in the village seemed to realize that much. He wondered, in the previous timeline, if he had just accepted his fate from the start, would he had come to fall for the blond sooner? He heard a chuckle from his left and looked to see that it was both Shikamaru and Chouji that was chuckling, he heard another bout of snickering and saw that Hinata was trying to cover her laughter as well. Ino was smirking, so was Kurama, "my, my, my, looks like our little black sheep has finally followed his heart," Ino said with a knowing look on her face, Sasuke blushed a little.

 

Sakura was both shocked and lost. Shocked because she had never seen her crush blush before, and lost because she had no idea what they were even talking about. "Huh? What's going on here? What are you talking about?" She asked them, they chuckled at her cluelessness.

 

"Don't worry about it Haruno, it's an inside thing," Hinata commented as she walked passed her, quickly followed by the others.

 

"Hinata?" Sakura asked confused she always thought that Hinata was some quiet little wallflower that never talked without stuttering. Now that she was hanging out with Naruto, it was like she did a full one-eighty on her personality. She was no longer the shy girl wearing conservative clothing. She now wore bright colors, dresses, shorts, sleeveless tops...she was now standing as the most wanted girl in the class along with Ino. She was also close to taking Sakura's title as the smartest girl in class, but Sakura doubted that she would be bold enough to take her title too. Right?  _"No, don't be ridiculous, Sakura, there's no way little Miss Wallflower could ever have the guts to do such a thing! Cha! That's right, I'm still the smartest girl in the whole class and I'll use that to win Sasuke-kun's love and affection! Cha, cha! Just you wait Sasuke-kun, I'll show you that I'm the right one for you!"_ She thought to herself, she smirked and looked up to the others to say something, but saw that she was the only one left in the class. "Huh? What? Where did everyone go!?"

 

* * *

**Somewhere in the village**

 

Iko was sitting in the living room watching tv. She was finished getting praised by her subjects and thought that she would relax and unwind by watching her favorite show. However, after turning on the tv, she found out that her favorite program had been canceled for the day and wouldn't be back until next week. She was a little pissed off at that, she really wanted to watch it when she got home from school today, it would have helped her calm down and forget the day she had. For the past month now, it seemed like the only thing that anyone in her class could talk about was Naruto. Naruto this, and Naruto that. It was like she couldn't get away from him at all! She thought that after spreading that rumor about him raping her, he would not get so much attention and people would ignore him or something. But now, it seemed like since he's always hanging around Sasuke and seemed to be flirting with him, Shikamaru, Chouji and those other people that Iko forgot the names of, the rumor was slowly fading into questions about her brother's sexual preference. Iko hated that. How was she supposed to get all the attention when he was causing such confusion? She sighed and thought to herself,  _"well, since I can't watch my show today, I think I'll get that idiot into trouble. Now, what can I use to do that? I already told them that he might have raped me, but would that even be enough still? No, I need something better, something bolder...Wait! I got it!"_ Iko hoped off the chair in her room and ran to the door so she could put on her shoes,  _"I know that baka from the science lab still owes me a favorite for bailing him out a few years ago. Even though I caused the accident, it was still his fault for not paying any attention to me when I came to visit him, who cares about work when you've got the cutest girl in the whole village coming to see you? He should have been grateful that I didn't say he tried to rape me too,"_  she stood up and headed for the door,  _"hehehe, this is going to be good."_

 

In actuality, two years ago, Iko had wondered into the research department one day because she was bored. She found an experimental liquid sitting over a small fire, it was purplish blue and smelled like strawberries. So naturally, she thought it was soda and tried to drink it. But her arms weren't long enough to reach the container, so she climbed on a chair to get onto the counter to get to it, unfortunately, the man in charge of the said liquid came in at that moment and saw her reaching for his deadly experiment. It was supposed to be a lethal poison that would have killed every organ in a person's body with one drop on their skin, luckily enough, she got to her in time before she could touch it. But, in doing so, Iko knocked over the jar of purplish liquid, none of it fell on her, however, the fumes did knock her out. The man that saved her, Matsukito, was already wearing a face mask, so he wasn't affected like Iko was. Matsukito took her out of the lab and got her medical attention, she was checked out and was okay. The only damage done was to his counter since the poisons compounds were so potent, it burned a hole into the countertop and halfway down the cabinets below. Even though she was okay, Iko didn't like how Mitsukito had interrupted her in trying to find out what the liquid had tasted like, so she told her father that it was Matsukito's falt that she was in the hospital and he made the mess that was in the lab. It was a good thing that Matsukito was such a good scientist or else Minato would have fired him on the spot, no, instead, he only reduced his paycheck to five hundred ryo a month, instead sixteen hundred. Ever since that day, every scientist knew better than to leave Iko alone in the lab unwatched, if she wasn't with someone, she was banned from coming inside. But she didn't know about that, nor did she know about the videotape that had been set up and updated every year since the incident. The other employee's of the lab took Mitsukito as an example and made sure to cover their asses no matter what. As for Matsukito, his paycheck had been raised to what it had been before thanks to Kushina that didn't take her daughter's side in the matter. 

 

On her way over to the lab, Iko spotted Naruto and his usual group going into a restaurant. Thinking that this could be her chance to get some of what she wanted, she followed him in. She trailed behind him quietly until he sat down a booth close to the back, Iko took up a spot that wasn't too far away from where she could still see them. She waited for the right moment until their food arrived. She looked around for a waiter, she stopped one that was walking by, "excuse me, sir, could you do me a favor?" She asked sweetly.

 

The man, who was a neutral party in anything relating to conflict, decided that he would just hear her out. "Sure thing, what can I do for you, Miss?" He asked politely.

 

Iko took out something from her pocket and showed it to him. It was a vial of blue liquid she got from a shady looking lady in a back ally a year and a half ago. "I want you to go and give this to that man over there," she said pointed right at Naruto.

 

The waiter looked at Naruto, "um...but isn't that the Hokage's son? Why would you want to hurt him?" He asked, now that he was really looking he realized who he was talking to, "and you're his daughter. What's in that thing anyway?"

 

Iko shook her head "that doesn't matter, I need to give this to him, this p-I mean it's medicine. Yeah, he needs to take this in order to live, doctor's orders, he forgot to take it this morning." She said, she wasn't sure if the guy was believing her or not, but she was the Hokage's daughter, why wouldn't he believe her and do as she said?

 

The waiter looked at her as if she was crazy, "okay, so why don't you go over there and give it to him yourself? I mean, he's your brother, right? He should at least do it for your sake, even if he doesn't like it. Is it for him to live right? What's wrong with him?"

 

"Yeah, um, what's wrong with him? Um, well, you see..." Iko didn't think that someone would be questioning her already, she didn't that anyone would question her. "Well, um-it just is! And he just needs to take it, okay!" She shouted at him, some people turned to see what all the commotion was about, so she lowered her voice. "Listen, I can't give it to him because..um, he thinks that I'm a bad person."

 

The waiter sweatdropped, "you don't say."  _If you're not, then why don't you guys just talk about it somewhere else and the restaurant out of it? I have enough problems with drunks as it is."_ He thought to himself. "Listen, I don't want to cause any trouble for my boss, so if you could please not make too big a fuss for the other customers, it would be well appreciated."

 

Iko frowned, "ooh, so should I just let my brother just die then? Is that what you want? His blood would be on your hands, you know." 

 

The man rolled his eye mentally, "very well then, how about I take the vile and put it in his next drink." He said pointed over to where Naruto was drinking from a cup, "that way, he wouldn't even notice it and he would take it without a problem. Wouldn't that be better?"

 

Iko thought about it, "no, it can't be mixed with anything else or else it will get weakened and won't work as well."  _"Actually, it would still work just as well, but I want him to know that it was me that put him in the hospital and he will be at my beck and call for the rest of his life! Add that to what I have planned for the lab, and I'll have him under my thumb forever!"_ She smirked.

 

The man sighed, "well, then, how about I talk with the chef in the kitchen and see what we can do for you to help your brother. Our cooks are said to be the best at making even ugly ingredients look good on a plate, so what do you say?"

 

Iko thought about it. She had followed Naruto in blindly and didn't stop to look at the name of the place. She realized that she was in the 'Yaza BBQ Bakery', the most elegant barbeque restaurant in all of Konoha. Iko loved to come here when she was younger, she remembered that she had a few of her birthdays here from time to time and loved the food, "okay, it's a deal." She handed the man the mysterious vile, "make sure that he gets every drop of it, I don't want it to be wasted," she warned him.

 

"Yes, of course, will you be staying? Can I get you something to eat while you're here?" The man asked, Iko declined and ran out of the restaurant. Once she was gone, the man slowly turned into a black shadow, reforming into the shape of a younger boy before the shadowy figure was revealed to be Shikamaru. The Nara smirked, "and she's supposed to be the best and brightest the village had to offer?" He chuckled as he turned and walked back over to the table where everyone else was waiting for him.

 

"So, how'd it go, Shika-chan? You find out what she wanted?" Naruto asked as he accepted some meat from Kurama's chopsticks.

 

"Yep, she didn't even know what hit her. I could say right now that we have nothing to worry about when it comes to your sister. She wasn't even aware enough to notice that I wasn't even wearing the same uniform as everyone else that worked here. All she really looked at was the apron over my clothes and that was all she needed to convince her that I worked here." Shikamaru explained, he placed the vile of blue liquid on the table, it looked almost like a gel with the way it moved around in the small container. "This thing is it..."

 

"Yes, this is the same liquid that she gave me before," Naruto stated as he took up the small container. I never knew what it was before and I could only assume that it was meant to harm me in some way, shape or form. That's why I had you approach her, seeing as you were able to control your shadow well enough to mask your chakra completely." He put the vile in one of his inner pockets and went back to eating, this time he accepted a cup of tea from Sasuke, making the Uchiha blush because he smiled at him. "When we get back, I want to test what is in that vile."

 

"Do you think it has something to do with  _them_ ?" Gaara asked. 

 

"The Women's Society? Maybe, it does seem like something that they might do. Who knows, this might have been how they were able to track me all those times before." He took a sip of his tea, "but, I can't be sure of that. If I don't drink this, I may do better in avoiding them. However, in order to make sure the same things don't happen twice, I am going to be keeping a low profile from now on."

 

"How will you do that? Everyone in the village knows your face and know you hang around us all the time." Gaara commented after taking a sip of his own tea, "on the way over here, I spotted at least three ANBU's watching us from the shadows, and there were four of them that entered the restaurant with us." He looked down into his cup, looking at his reflection in the smooth liquid, he was nervous, a feeling that was wasn't familiar with before. "Do you think that we should-"

 

"Calm down, Gaara, let us not jump to conclusions." Hinata jumped in, "but still," she placed a hand on Gaara's shoulder, giving him a small smile before turning to Naruto. "It wouldn't be such a bad idea, I would also like to see who they are doing."

 

Ino gasped, "you mean-Oh! Wait, but we can't, can we? What if we get caught?"

 

"Don't worry about getting caught Ino, you have me remember?" Kurama said with a foxy grin, "I'm a sly fox with a cham able to sway a snake. I won't let any of us get caught."

 

Ino was starting to feel relaxed about that idea when a sudden presence behind them made her go on high alert. "Are you sure about that?" They all looked to see the Hokage standing behind them, he had an army of ANBU with him. He glared down at Naruto's group, "it seems to me that you all are trying to plan something suspicious. I have had my eye on all of you for a few weeks now and then I hear this. I am willing to look past it if you tell who you really are." He stated sternly, he knew for a while that Naruto had not been acting the same way. Sure he was distant before, but now he barely even saw him at home anymore, and Kurshina keeps asking about him, usually, she would be telling him about how smart Naruto was, not to mention how well he was growing up. He didn't doubt that his son was smart, though he thought that since Iko was the chosen one. The child of prophecy. She had to be the better child, but there was something in his gut that kept nagging at him. Pulling him towards Naruto and his new group of friends. He didn't even know that Naruto even had friends to speak of! So, naturally, he thought the best way to catch him in the act would be to put ANBU on him. He told them to watch him day and night, but somehow, his son always managed to slip through his best ANBU's fingers at night or when he didn't want them around. He never figured out how he managed to do that, but he would find out today. Yet, even though they were surrounded by ANBU of caption level, a Kage, and lots of other ninjas, no one moved. The table was as calm as calm could possibly be. They stopped to look at him when he came and spoke, but now that he wasn't speaking anymore, they were going back to eating? Why?

 

"Um...? Hokage-sama, doe something feels off to you?" Asked one ANBU in a cat mask.

 

"Yes, they're not moving, I thought that they would at least be asking questions about why we were here and what not But they're not making a single fearful move!" Commented another ANBU in a goat mask.

 

"Hm, you're right," Minato stated, he stepped forward, placing a hand on the nearest child to him. It happened to be Gaara, he didn't have much information on him, in fact, it would be more accurate to say that he had no information on him at all. When his hand made contact with Gaara's shoulder, a popping sound was heard, it came again from another side of the table, the sound continued to go off until the whole area was covered in smoke. When it cleared, it showed that no one had been there, not even the food that was there was on the table anymore.

 

"what?"

 

"How can that be?"

 

"Where are they?"

 

"Were they even here?"

 

Minato snapped out of his shock and turned to his ANBU, "spread out and find them all. We cannot let them escape without answering my questions! GO!" The ANBU saluted their leader and jumped off in all directions. Minato turned back to watch the empty space for a minute before turning around and walking away.

 

* * *

**Away from the village**

 

"The plan has been completed, Naruto."

 

"Excellent. You did well, Shika-chan, now then" he turned to the rest, "shall we leave?"

 

**To be continued...**

 


	5. DWMA and Naruto

"Minato? What's wrong?" Kushina asked her husband when he walked through the door, she was also looking behind him to see if Naruto was with him, but frowned when she didn't see him. Minato noticed the look on his wife's face and frowned as well, even though he forgave her for her past actions, he could not get over the fact that he was no longer as much of the center of her attention than his own son is now. And it wasn't even the right attention that she should have paid to their son in the first place!

 

Minato sighed, "it's Naruto," he began, gaining her attention soon enough. His frown got a little deeper, but he continued anyway. "Have you noticed him acting strangely recently?"

 

Kushina nodded, "ah, yes, I have. He hasn't been coming home recently, I was starting to get worried about him, so I did some looking around." She said as she set the table for dinner.

 

"Hm, what did you find out?" Minato asked while helping her.

 

"Well, it was a bit odd, actually, it was very odd, now that I think about it," she continued.

 

"How so?"

 

"Well, I went to the academy a few weeks back and saw that he has been coming to school more often than before. I also found that he's not wearing his usual orange jumpsuit like always." Kushina thought about her findings more, she paused in setting a place for Naruto at the table, "actually, he hasn't been coming come much either."

 

"Yes, I noticed that too," Minato commented as he placed the last cup down on the table, he turned to his wife then. Eyeing her ever so slightly, "is there anything else?" He asked, snapping her out of her far away look.

 

"Uh, yeah, there is. It looks like our son's become good friends with most of the clan heirs." Kushina explained, "I'm not really sure how or when that happened, but I've been trying to keep an eye on them when I could and I saw Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino hanging around him way more than they did before. They seemed to be really close too. Not only that, but Hinata, the Hyuuga heiress, and Neji from the side branch have been seen hanging around him as well. Those two were pretty casual with Naruto even though their clan is known for being very formal with people, even their own allies."

 

Minato nodded, "yes, I see what you mean." He stated, he remembered every time he went over to the Hyuuga compound, it always felt as if he was an outsider there and Hiashi wasn't all too warm with him either. Not even during the happiest of times."

 

"Oh, and get this. It looks like those two boys that may have been from the Uzumaki clan have already aligned themselves with Naruto's little group." Kushina said although she wasn't sure if she was happy about that, "but the biggest thing that everyone seems to talk about now is Sasuke."

 

"Hm? Sasuke Uchiha?" Minato asked, his wife nodded her head, "what about him? Don't tell me that he's aligned with Naruto too."

 

"Actually, yes, that's exactly what happened! I don't know how but at some point in the past month or so, a number of people have seen the two of them acting...oddly." 

 

"Odd how?" Minato folded his arms, the definition of odd seems to differ between him and his wife a lot more now after the...incident.

 

"Well...and this might just be my opinion, but...some people say that Naruto and Sasuke seem to have gotten  _that_ kind of relationship."

 

Minato sweatdropped at her, "what is ' _that_ kind of relationship' supposed to mean, Kushina? Be a little more pacific here or else I don't know what you mean."

 

Kushina sighed and rolled her eyes as if it wasn't obvious already, "what I mean is, since you're so dense, that they seem like they're  _dating._ I know, it sounds weird right?" She said when she saw the shocked look on her husband's face, "I thought so too, I mean, sure they do seem to be joined at the hip now. And the fact that some people actually saw the last  _Uchiha_ **blushing** whenever he looked at Naruto...they were seen holding hands not too long ago too..." she started to sound a little depressed. She shook herself out of it and continued, "but there's no way my babies into other boys!!" She said confidently.

 

Minato deadpanned at her, "you sound so sure of that, Kushi-chan, makes me wonder..."

 

Kushina then realized what she had just said, "oh, no, um, what I meant was, that um...well as his mother, I should know his well enough, right?"

 

Minato could have been petty about this right then and commented back, but he diced not to. "Anyway, what else can you tell me what Naruto's been up to recently? Since it's gotten busy around the office because of the chunin exams coming up, I am left wondering about him most of the time. Especially since he hasn't been coming home lately either."

 

"Oh! That's right! Inoichi said that Ino hasn't been coming home that much either lately. Shikaku and Chouza said the same thing about their son's too." Kushina stated as if she just remembered, "and just the other day, I overheard that Hiashi was mad that his oldest daughter hasn't been seen around their compound either. Man, I'd say that this is a cause for worry when even Hinata follows in his footsteps. Shikamaru and Chouji I may understand, but not Hinata."

 

Minato nodded, "yeah your right...hey, where's Iko? It's just about dinner time."

 

Kushina shrugged as she headed back into the kitchen, "I don't really know. I went to call her to get ready, but she wasn't in the living room watching tv like usual. I figured that she must have gone out with her friends or something."

 

Minato frowned at the door as it closed behind Kushina, "or something. Huh."

* * *

 

**Hyuuga Compound**

 

"Where the hell is she?! Did I not ask you to bring my daughter to me at once?" Came the angered voice of one Hiashi Hyuuga, the upset father had asked one of the branch members to bring his oldest daughter, Hinata, to him so that he could have a few words with her. He was very upset at the fact that he had not been able to see her in the dojo when he expected her to be in other improving on her shamefully weak skills. Instead, she was seen hanging out with the blond Uzumaki boy? He was so bad that he had used several branch members to take his anger out on, sending two to the hospital and almost killing the third in his rage. No daughter of his should be associating herself with the likes of that fool, even if he is the Hokage's son, Hiashi wanted to make sure that she knew her place, and knew it well. But after sending more than a few branch members out to find his daughter, they had failed to bring her back to the compound where she belonged, they failed countless times and Hiashi was getting tired of it.

 

"Hiashi-sama, please, we beg you, forgive us, but we could not find Hinata-sama anywhere. We looked all over for her, but she was nowhere in sight, please forgive us!" Begged one of the branch members that Hiashi had sent out to find Hinata, they were all lined up before him in a row, bowing low to the ground and hoping for mercy from the clan head. Well, more like praying but whatever.

 

"Enough! You lot have failed me for the last time! I have had enough of your failures, be gone!" Hiashi made the hand sign that would activate the caged bird seal placed on the branch members when suddenly, one of the other main branch members stopped him. "Hm? What is it?" He asked impatiently.

 

"Hiashi, my son, why do you wast so much time on trying to find her?" The man asked, "she is useless to us if she is so weak, if that were the only case, then I would tell you to disown her immediately."

 

"You would have? What changed your mind now?" Hiashi asked, becoming more interested in what the man had to say,

 

"Yes, the girl is weak in the Hyuuga fighting style, therefore, she is not a very good choice in becoming the next head of our clan." The man started, "however," he paused for a moment. He thought over his words carefully, "since she has managed to befriend the Hokage's son so easily, may I suggest that we use this as an advantage?"

 

"How would this be to our advantage? The girl is too weak to-"

 

"But that is not the only thing there is. Hiashi, as the daughter of a clan head, and the son of the Hokage, they would make a powerful, political figurehead that we could possibly use in the future. If we can get her to cooperate with our wishes, then in time, we could groom her to carry out our requests while still letting her think that she is in control of her choices." The man nodded once, "yes, and if she was to bear him an heir..."

 

Hiashi's eyes widen with realization, "I see, so she is of use to us after all. Very well, I will not jump to conclusions so quickly next time. However, the fact still remains that we must find her. Without her, we will be at a loss."

 

"Not exactly, I have a feeling that we will be able to get what we want, even if she isn't here right now." The man stated as he turned to walk out of the room, "come, my son, we must meet with the Hokage.

 

* * *

 

**With Naruto and the others**

 

It has been about half a day since Naruto and the others left the village wall. They traveled all the way to Toyko, a place that no one but Naruto and Kurama had been able to see before, and headed to the airport. The others were shocked that there were places outside of the Elemental Nation that they've never heard of before. No one in the village had ever been to a place that was not associated with the five great nations before, Shikamaru, as well as the others. had wondered why that was. "Hey, Naruto, how come we've never heard of this place, Japan, before? Are we still even in the same world any more?" Ino asked curiously, voicing the other's thoughts.

 

"Well, yes and no, Ino. Yes, you are in the same world as before, but at the same time, you aren't," Naruto tried to explain.

 

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Chouji asked.

 

"Okay, put it this way, if all a turtle knew from birth was his shell, does that mean that there isn't a beach just outside of it?" Naruto tried, the others looked thoughtful of what he was saying. "What I'm trying to say is that not many people from the nations were able to leave the elemental nations because there is a sort of barrier that surrounds the nations. Initially, cutting us all off from the outside world, but that doesn't mean that there is no outside world to explore because of it. While we were all so wrapped up in our own little shell, the rest of the world had moved on ages past us, and has evolved into the thing you see here." He opened his arms out gesturing to the wide ranges of buildings around them, the moving cars, the ads on build boards, and so on, "this is only one part of the world so far, and there is thousands upon thousands more place just like this. They're different, but all are the same in the fact that people live there...well, once you get to see more, you'll start to understand that Konoha and the other elemental nations are nothing but an invisible dot on the map." He explained, he turned down one way of the sidewalk and saw a cab waiting for them, it was a modern one meant to fit more than three people at a time. Standing next to it was a kid dressed in an all-black suit, a white shirt underneath, and three white stripes on one side of his head. He walked up closer to him and smiled, "a Kid, how's it going?"

 

The boy turned to the blond, for a moment, he had a puzzled look on his face, but then he seemed to recognized the person he was standing in front of. "Naruto?... Is that really you?" The boy asked.

 

"In the flesh," Naruto smirked.

 

The boy blinked in surprise at the blond for a long time before a soft smile played on his lips. "Well, I must say, it's good to see that Soul's dream was wrong about you after all."

 

"Soul's dream?" Naruto asked.

 

The boy nodded, "yes, that's right, a few months ago, he disappeared before everyone's eyes. Suddenly, he appears in my home, sleeping. I thought that this had to be some sort of joke, but then he woke up screaming and crying. When we asked what was wrong, he told us all about you and how you died. After that, there were memories coming to us in the middle of the night, I thought it had to be dreams of another life because it felt so unreal. Things that haven't even happened yet showed themselves to me and the other..." he sighed, "I guess they're not dreams after all, not if you used  _it_."

 

Naruto winked his eye, "what do you take me for, there's only one way that I could ever use it, and if it wasn't for that, this meeting would never have taken place. Now then, let's stop talking," he said getting serious, he leaned in close to the boy's face after looking around to see if there was someone listening to them. "Listen, what do you know about 'The Oder of the Phoenix'? Their names seem to have taken up space at the back of my mind for some reason since I woke up in this time, and I'm trying my best to look, but I couldn't find out anything back in the village. Do you know anything about them? Heard anything?"

 

The boy standing in front of him thought for a moment, "yes, but also no. They're a tricky subject that I haven't been able to gather much on, but what I can tell you know is...they're bad news. You better know what you're doing before you go around calling their names like their old friends."

 

Naruto got a grim look on his face, "are they really that bad?"

 

"..." Kid stayed quite for a long time, they only thing that was heard around them was the honking of horns and people walking by. He took in a deep breath, "let's just say...those that they don't like, tend to disappear after speaking their names too loudly."

 

Naruto nodded, "then we'll just have to whisper from now."

 

The boy chuckled softly, "you're everything I remembered and more." He opened the side door of the cab and stepped aside, "hop in, I've got a jet waiting that'll take us anywhere you want."

 

Naruto smirked, he turned around to the rest of his crew, "hey guys, let's get going! We've got a plain to catch!" 

 

"A plain? What's that?" Ino asked curiously.

 

"Donno, but we might as well find out now, he said it was waiting," Shikamaru said with both hands in his pocket.

 

"I wonder if there'll be food there, I'm starting to get hungry," Chouji commented as they walked over to the cab.

 

Once everyone was inside the cab, Kid got into the driver's seat and drove off. "It's nice to meet all of you, my name is Death the Kid, but my friends just call me Kid. What are all of your names? How do you know Naruto?"

 

Kurama popped up from the furthest row in the back, "my name's Kurama, nice to see you again Kid. I know you probably won't remember but I'm the nine tails spirit that was living inside Naruto in the past, well I got a real body now! Isn't that neat?" He said happily.

 

Of course, Kid didn't remember Kurama being a nine-tailed fox in the past because Naruto never got a chance to tell him since they were always busy. "Hm, okay, that's good to know, who's next?"

 

"I guess I'll go, name's Shikamaru Nara."

 

"Ino Yamanaka, I like this, 'car' was it? It's really cute and comfortable!" She said happily.

 

"It's called a cab, but thank you anyways, Ino," Kid stated as he kept his eyes on the road.

 

"Hi, I'm Chouji Akamichi, I was wondering if we could stop off to get something to eat on the way? I haven't had much to eat since before we left," Chouji admitted. In order to keep their low profile at the restaurant, they couldn't order a bunch of food like they usually would make at home. And it had already been several hours of traveling since then, so they were all starting to get pretty hungry by now.

 

"Don't worry, Chouji, I restocked my jet with food just this morning. I had a feeling that I would be running into you guys for some reason." Kid explained, he stopped at a red light and turned to them, "however, if you would like to stop and get something before we take off, I can take you to a fast food restaurant before. What would you like, there's Panda Express, Mcdonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Checkers, and even a Domino's on the way, take your pick." He said as the light turned green and the car started moving again.

 

Chouji was blown away with all of the choices, "wow, I don't know the names of any of those places, but I would really like to try them all!"

 

"Me too!" Hinata cheered, there was a bit of drool coming down the side of her mouth as she thought about all the new foods that she could try. "Oh, and my name's Hinata Hyuuga and this is Neji, we're sort of related but we don't like to talk about it..."

 

Kid looked up at the girl with lavender shaded eyes, a puzzled look in his eyes. "That seems a bit odd, may I ask why?"

 

"It's a bit...complicated," Neji commented. "Naruto had arranged for us to be removed from our clan because of the...unfaborable behavior shown by our fellow clansmen. But the only way that he could remove us from our clan, he would have to marry us into his own clan, and that was what he chose to do at the time."

 

"And I would do it again!" Naruto boasted proudly.

 

Kid sweatdropped, "I'm not sure you should be gloating about that, Naruto. You married two relatives in your past life. I can't say that your future children would be too clear on what to call them after hearing that their uncle and aunt married the same man."

 

Naruto pouted, "yeah, but there's still time before that bridge is crossed, so let's not think about it, okay?"

 

"Well anyways, let's see who's left," Kurama said getting back to the point, he pulled Gaara to his side and placed a hand on Sasuke's head. "Okay, so this little redhead is my lovely teddy bear, Gaara, and this one right here is Sasuke Uchiha. They're both usually silent types, so sometimes you forget that they're there sometimes. Hahaha, they're kind of like ghost in a sense."

 

"Well, that's everyone, I believe, any questions, Kid?" Naruto asked.

 

Kid stopped at another red light before turning right, "actually, yes, "which was is your wife?" He asked, "while they were talking, I can't pick up on which one it was."

 

"What do you mean, Kid?" Naruto asked confused, "they're all my wives!" He smiled proudly as Kid nearly skidded to a stop out of shock.

 

Kid looked back at Naruto, "you can't be serious." Naruto nodded, "all of them?" He nodded again, "...why?"

 

Naruto sighed heavily, "that's something that I can explain on the jet. But for right now, let's get going, people are honking at us." He stated as the sound of beeping cars were heard from outside.

 

Kid grunted, "fine, let's go," he put the car in drive and took off, "but once we get on board, you better start telling me everything I want to know."

 

"Fine by me," Naruto said happily as he put his arms around Chouji and Shikamaru as he leaned back in his seat.

 

Kid frowned at the image in his back seat before turning back to the road before him, "pervert."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**

**Author's Note:**

> Suggestions and comments are always welcomed!


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